The brown-bellied swallow (Orochelidon murina) is a species of bird in the family Hirundinidae, the swallows and martins. It is found in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
The brown-bellied swallow was originally described as Petrochilidon murina. Since then it had been placed in both Notiochelidon and Atticora. Following a study published in 2005 it was moved to the resurrected genus Orochelidon that had been erected in 1903.
The brown-bellied swallow shares genus Oroichelidon with the pale-footed swallow (O. flavipes) and Andean swallow (O. andecola). It has three subspecies, the nominate O. m. murina (Cassin, 1853), O. m. meridensis (Zimmer, JT & Phelps, WH, 1947), and O. m. cyanodorsalis (Carriker, 1935).
Description
The brown-bellied swallow is about 14 cm (5.5 in) long and weighs about 12.5 g (0.44 oz). The sexes have similar plumage though females are duller overall than males. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a mostly blackish head and neck with a blue-green gloss and a sooty gray-brown throat. Their upperparts are blackish with a blue-green gloss. Their tail is moderately forked; it and their wings are dark brown. Their underparts are mostly sooty gray-brown with black undertail coverts. Juveniles are duller than adults with a brown throat, gray-white underparts, and a shorter tail. Subspecies O. m. meridensis has bluer upperparts than the nominate. The male's undertail coverts have dark metallic blue tips and females' have brown tips. O. m. cyanodorsalis has a steel-blue gloss on its upperparts and black undertail coverts.
Distribution and habitat
The brown-bellied swallow has a disjunct distribution. Subspecies O. m. meridensis is the northernmost. It is found in the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia, in the Serranía del Perijá that straddles the Colombia-Venezuela border, and from Trujillo in western Venezuela south through Colombia's Eastern Andes as far as Boyacá Department. The nominate...
