The pied-winged swallow was described by the English ornithologist William Swainson in 1837 who introduced its current binomial name Hirundo leucosoma.

[2] The specific epithet combines the Ancient Greek words leukos, "white" and sōma, sōmatos, "body".

[5] The pied-winged swallow is about 12 cm (4.7 in) long with glossy steel-blue wings and head.

[6] This swallow is found in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

It lives in a variety of environments including wooded savannas, forest clearings and rivers.

Buildings and other human habitations make for common nesting sites, and have potentially boosted the pied-winged's population.

[6] Pied-winged swallows are partial migrants, travelling as far as Ghana and Northern Nigeria during the rainy season.