The Swallows Return to Odonata Sanctuary

The Barn swallow (Hirundo rustica)

The barn swallow is the most widespread spe- cies of swallow in the world. It’s found in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. Barn swallows, in our neck of the woods, spend only a few months here. The ones we see in our barns and sheds come here to build nests and have young but spend their winters elsewhere. Southbound fall mi- gration for Barn swallows to Central or South Amer- ica may begin as early as mid-July around the Fin- ger Lakes. They return in the spring, usually in late April. These beauties are short time visitors to the region, swooping down on Willow’s Pond scooping up a drink of water or perhaps catching a few flying insects. Swallows are the farmer’s best insecticides. A single barn swallow can consume 60 insects per hour or an impressive 850 per day! I’m not sure why they are called ‘swallows’ (and I’m not sure why their family name is Hirundinae, which is the same as the leech’s - subclass Hirundinae), but they certainly do “swallow“ a mouthful of insects.

The barn swallows arrive here at Odonata Sanc- tuary just after the tree swallows. The barn swallow’s first arrival is often missed because they look so sim- ilar to the tree swallows as they fly through the sky like little Parodi cigars with wings. Although they are easily told apart by their coloring, the white belly of the Tree Swallow and the barn red chin of the Barn swallow, it’s the chittering sound the barn swallows make that announces their arrival in the spring. Like other swallows, barn swallows migrate long distanc- es from Alaska to South and Central America most of the time returning each spring to the very same nest! They’ll make the necessary repairs if the nest has been damaged over the winter or removed by the barn owner. Swallows will look for a protected nook or cranny to set up housekeeping. Every year when the barn swallows return, I have to make sure our garage doors are kept closed for the few weeks of nest building. But, every year I forget and we end up with “garage swallows” and I have to keep a garage door open until they successfully fledge. The nests are cup shaped affairs made of grass, feathers and most importantly, mud: spit and mud. Both parents help repair or build a new nest. Males and females look very similar, however, females tend to be less brightly colored and have shorter tails. Both adults will collect feathers, spit and mud in their bills, cre- ating small pellets that are used like bricks to, layer by layer, form the cup shaped nest. What dedication! Imagine carrying mouthfuls of mud to make your home comfy.

Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor)

“There is arguably no bird in the world that combines graceful flight, beauty of feather, pleasing song, and accessibility; plus tameness and abun- dance, more than the tree swallows.” Bernd Heinrich

I place my nest boxes in pairs to enable the tree swallows to nest with the eastern bluebirds. This is still a study in progress and the subject of some heat- ed debates amongst nestbox trail keepers. The blue- bird crew believes that tree swallows help protect the area surrounding the nest boxes from the hassling house Sparrows and European starlings - the bane

of bluebird lovers. It’s interesting that Europeans set up nest boxes to attract English (house) sparrows and European starlings, but here we consider them invasive pests. Both house sparrows and European starlings will try to set up housekeeping in a nestbox set up for bluebirds and tree swallows. The foreign invaders will pull bluebirds or tree swallows from their nests or even just build their nest on top of the existing nest. This is why it is so important that if you decide to set up a nest box for a bluebird that you monitor the box and remove any nesting mate- rial created by the sparrows and starlings. The female tree swallow is the nest builder of the species. She gathers the materials and constructs the nest while the male ‘stands guard’. Tree swallows are very good at defending their nest box against these two inva- sive species. When you approach a tree swallow nest box you’re going to get dive bombed by the occu- pants and a few others that may join in just for fun while the meek and mild (nonaggressive) cerulean bluebird huddles in its nest. We believe that the tree swallow’s aggressive behavior protects the more doc- ile bluebird. The tree swallows folks believe that any animosity felt towards tree swallows by bluebirders is derived from the widespread belief that bluebirds are in trouble, their very survival in danger unless hu- mans come to their rescue and that bluebirds should be given preferential treatment when it comes to nestbox occupation. I don’t know of any bluebird- er who would remove or discourage a tree swallow from nesting in one of their nest boxes but there is an initial competition for nest boxes if the pairings are too close together. I recommend a distance of 3 meters for the pairs and then 100 meters between the pairs of boxes. This social distancing will flatten the curve of cavity nesting competition and provide for a more successful nesting season for both the bluebirds and swallows. Maybe I’ll find a volunteer, Scout or grad student, to do a study on the 50 acres in the Eastern section of our Bluebird Trail.

Time to FeatherYour Nest

Research has shown that well-feathered nests cool off much slower than nests with few or no feath- ers, keeping eggs and young warmer during times when the female swallow must be away. An interest- ing Tree Swallow nest design factor is the inclusion of white feathers. Bluebird nests don’t have them, neither do barn swallow nests. house sparrows may have white feathers, but house sparrows will have everything: string, straw, balloon ribbons, the kitch- en sink if they could carry it. In Bernd Heinrich’s book White Feather: The Nesting Lives of Tree Swal- lows, he says that the white feathers are added after the eggs are laid. He asks the question: Why does a pair of swallows in a nest-box close to his Maine cabin show a peculiar preference for white feathers to line their nests, feathers that are not easily locally accessible? Scientist that he is, he actually counted 110 white feathers in one tree swallow nest while

writing the book. We may
never solve the mystery of
the white feathers, but we’ll
certainly look forward to the return of the swallows next spring.

Birding, aka bird watching, is the perfect activi- ty during these times of practicing social distancing. Alone in the woods, kayaking on one of our beauti- ful Finger Lakes or sitting at your kitchen window, watching bird life can be enormously entertaining, educational and is no longer considered esoteric. This is a time to pause and feather your own nest. Perhaps provide any extra nesting material you may have to those not so fortunate.

Sparrow Fun Facts:

•The airspeed of an unladen swallow (European, Af- rican or tree) can be 31-40 mph.
•Throw a white feather in the air near an active tree swallow nest box, and the swallows will dive and catch the feather. It’s like watching an aerial dog fight between Snoopy and the Red Baron.

•I was going to write about the ‘Crows of Odonata’ but their family name, Corvidae, reminded me too much of something very unpleasant.

Further Historical Research:

Where did Barn swallows nest before there were barns to nest in?
Further Reading:
White Feather: The Nesting Lives of Tree Swallow by Bernd Heinrich

Further Viewing:

Monty Python’s The Search for the Holy Grail.

I was walking across our com- pound last month when a queen termite began building her miraculous city. I saw it because I looked down. One night three fruit bats flew across the face of the moon.I saw it because I looked up.

William Beebe

An aside from a vegan perspective: Bird’s Nest Soup. The bird's nests used for this Chinese ‘delicacy’ belong to the swiftlet not a swallow, although it may be on the menu as ‘Chinese Swallow Soup’. Swifts and swallows are superficially similar in appearance. However, they are only distant cousins. Swifts are more closely related to hummingbirds. Both the swiftlet and the swallow use saliva to glue their nests together. What makes the soups so ‘delicious’ is the fact that the swiflet’s nest is made entirely of gummy saliva whereas barn swallow nests are made of sali- va, grass, sticks, feathers and mud. So you probably shouldn’t make soup from a barn swallow’s nest. These swiftlets are a small bird usually found in Southeast Asia that live in dark caves and, similar to bats, use echolocation to move around and catch their prey. Ah, bats...that should raise a red flag.

S