Violet-green Swallow

How to find it

Scan flocks of swallows overhead, because it hunts in flocks and feeds higher than other swallows. In bad weather it drops low over ponds, which can give a closer look. Open fields beside farms and woodland patches in the highlands have produced flocks. Birders in Costa Rica had better luck when the birds fed low over trees and a field, where the white face and rump patches were easier to see. Check each swallow for white rump patches rather than relying on colour.

How to recognise it

This is a small swallow, about 12 to 13 cm long. Learn it in plain parallel marks:

White below.

Shiny green above, with a purple tinge on the rump.

White patches on each side of the rump that almost meet at the tail base.

White on the face reaching above the eye.

The tail notch is a little shallower than a Tree Swallow's and deeper than the nearly flat tail of a Cliff Swallow. Light changes everything: birds often look dark until sunlight hits the green back and purple rump. In a poor view a Violet-green shows neither violet nor green, so the white face and rump patches matter more than colour.

What it sounds like

Recording: Tim Messick, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The Violet-green Swallow is an aerial insect-eater. It flies acrobatically high over lakes and streams, catching flying insects on the wing. It feeds higher in the sky than other swallows, but drops low over ponds in bad weather.

It usually hunts in flocks, sometimes mixed with other swallows or swifts, and flocks gather before and during migration. In Costa Rica, birders have watched groups feeding over trees and open fields alongside Blue-and-white and Northern Rough-winged Swallows.

Where it lives

On its breeding grounds it uses open deciduous or mixed conifer forest, woodland with rock crevices and banks, and wooded neighbourhoods. One subspecies breeds from Alaska and Canada south to central Baja California and southern Mexico, and winters south to Costa Rica.

In Costa Rica, birders have found it in highland forest next to woodland patches and farms, and in hills near the Bosque del Niño area, usually feeding over open fields and trees.

When to see it

It is a winter visitor, and a Costa Rican birding blog reports sightings after winter began in November. The same blog describes a fairly large flock, perhaps 70 swallows or more, in a field the following winter season.

Similar birds

In Costa Rica the common Blue-and-white Swallow is the likely mix-up. Blue-and-whites have black undertail coverts, and Violet-greens do not. Violet-greens also show white faces and white patches on the sides of the rump. The Tree Swallow looks very similar, but it lacks both the white rump side-patches that split the green back from the purple tail and the white face reaching above the eye.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican Spanish names include Golondrina Verdiviolácea, the AOCR name, and Golondrina verde violácea. Mexican sources use other names, such as Golondrina Cariblanca and Golondrina verdemar.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list codes it M (migrant), while Avibase lists it for Costa Rica as rare or accidental.

Photography tips

Against a poor view a Violet-green shows neither violet nor green. Birders in Costa Rica had better luck when the birds fed low over trees and a field, where the white face and rump patches were easier to see.