Abstract
The Western Palearctic (WP) populations of Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis daurica rufula breed across the Mediterranean from Morocco to Greece, the Balkans, Turkey, Cyprus and the Middle East (Turner & Kirwan 2020). All these populations are presumed to winter in the savannah belt in sub-Saharan Africa, from northern Senegal to southern Africa (Turner & Kirwan 2020 but see also van den Brink & Leonard 2011 for a record in Zambia and Fisher & Hunter 2014 for two records in Kenya). The paucity of records in Tunisia and Libya during migration appears to indicate that most of the European birds may winter in western Africa, whereas south-eastern European and Middle East populations may winter in the east. However, it is hard to pinpoint the wintering grounds of European birds more exactly, not least because of the presence of resident populations of the similar-looking subspecies C d melanocrissus in the northern part of the Afrotropics (Turner & Kirwan 2020). Winter records in Iberia or northern Africa are very scarce and generally involve lone birds (or a few individuals) that will not return the following year (eg, Goodman & Meininger 1989, Isenmann et al 2005, Bergier et al 2017; eBird data). To the best of our knowledge, no regular wintering site or even winter record of a large group has ever been mentioned within the WP.