Sexes alike. Glossy steel-blue above; chestnut supercilium, sides of head, neck-collar and rump; dull rufous-white below, streaked brown; deeply forked tail
diagnostic. Small parties spend much of the day on the wing; the migrant, winter-visiting race nipalensis, is highly gregarious; hawks insects along with other birds; freely perches on overhead wires, thin branches of bushes and trees; hunts insects amongst the most crowded areas of towns, over markets and refuse heaps, flying with amazing agility, wheeling and banking and stooping with remarkable mastery.