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The UK Bird Atlas

Red-rumped Swallow (Cecropis rufula)Where and when to see it in the UK

Passage migrant · reporting peaks April to May · Swallows · BOU category A

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Red-rumped Swallow (Cecropis rufula)
Paulclee, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Red-rumped Swallow: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Red-rumped Swallow has been recorded in 107 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (4%) in records to 2026. Passage migrant in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in April to May.

Conservation status: Not Evaluated (IUCN Red List, NE)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
100% or more of visits
High
<1% to 100%
Moderate
<1% to <1%
Low
under <1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 0%<1%Insufficient records
February 3%<1%High
March 8%<1%Low
April 91%<1%Moderate
May 91%<1%Very high
June 9%<1%Very high
July 0%<1%Very high
August 0%<1%Insufficient records
September 13%<1%Low
October 100%<1%Low
November 51%<1%High
December 11%<1%Low

Squares with the highest reporting rate in April

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
NY30Westmorland and Furness, England100%Very high
SN41Carmarthenshire, Wales100%Very high
SW53Cornwall, England100%Very high
SZ39Hampshire, England100%Very high
TL30Hertfordshire, England100%Very high
TM46Suffolk, England100%Very high
TM58Suffolk, England100%Very high
TQ01West Sussex, England100%Very high
TQ16Surrey, England100%Very high
TR34Kent, England100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.