Definition of "wire-tailed" [wire•-tailed]

• Having some or all of the tail quills terminated in a long, slender, pointed shaft, without a web or barbules. (adjective)

Gnu Collaboartive International Dictionary of English: licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

• "They derive the name "wire-tailed" from the fact that the thin shafts of the outer pair of tail feathers are prolonged five inches beyond the others and look like wires."
• "The nesting season of wire-tailed swallows is a long one."
• "There is no doubt that some wire-tailed swallows bring up two broods."