A common resident or local migrant found only in Zululand and the Kruger Park regions of South Africa.
Gregarious at all times, usually in small loose flocks when breeding. Before migration these birds may form flocks of up to 3 000 birds. They roost communally in reed beds.
They like dry burnt grassland, bare ground on the edges of vleis and clearings in woodland where they can forage over the open ground.
The flight is fluttering and darting and they often perch on leafless twigs or grass stems looking for aerial arthropods. These swallows are usually silent, having only a weak hissing twitter.
Breeding takes place from March to July.
The nest is a pad of soft dry grass in a rodent burrow, old kingfisher’s nest or the funnel of a termite mound. Three or four glossy white eggs are laid. The incubation and nestling periods are unrecorded.
There is no tribal name and in Afrikaans die gryskruisswael.
