เThe Barn Swallow species group (genus: Hirundo) has long intrigued
both scientists and the general public (reviewed in Møller,
1994; Turner, 2006), and it has become a model system for topics
in evolutionary and behavioral ecology such as sexual selection,
breeding biology and flight behavior. Understanding the historical
origins of morphological, life-history and behavioral variation in
this group requires a robust phylogenetic hypothesis for the Barn
Swallow (H. rustica) subspecies that have been the focus of the
most intensive research as well as other closely related, and often
ecologically similar, species in the genus.