Chimney Swift, Purple Martin & Swallows

*Built for life in the air - long tapering wings and light-weight bodies. Short, wide bills for scooping up insect prey.

*Very social and breed in colonies.

Chimney Swift Chaetura pelagica

Coloration: Sooty gray, looks stubby between the long narrow wings. Has very tiny, vestigial feet with four clawed toes facing forward. These feet allow the swift to cling to upright surfaces.

Size: 5 inches long, 1 foot wingspan.

Flight Pattern: Bat-like, with shallow wing beats and erratic stalls and turns.

Diet: Flies, leafhoppers, flying ants, mayflies, stoneflies, beetles, leaf bugs and other flying insects. Spiders - ones floating on strands of silk borne aloft by air currents. They drink on the wing, skimming over the water while in flight.

*Thought to be monogamous and mate for life. Monogamous - The condition of having only one mate during a breeding season or during the breeding life of a pair.

Nest: Today the use manmade structures almost exclusively: Factory and house chimneys, silos, air shafts, & old wells, where they are protected from storms and predators. Shaped like a half-saucer and cemented to a vertical surface. The twigs are held together by the adults’ glutinous saliva, which solidifies and binds as it dries.

Eggs: 3-6 (4-5) White and unmarked. Both sexes incubate for 18 - 21 days. Young are born altricial (helpless, naked, and blind) and fed regurgitated insects. The young fledge after a month and join feeding flocks.

*Average lifespan is four years.

Purple Martin Progne Subis

Size: 8 inches in length - largest American swallow.

Coloration: Males are glistening blue-black, females & yearlings are grayish with pale bellies. Both sexes have a notched tail.

Flight Pattern: They are less maneuverable than other swallows & glide in circles punctuated with short periods of flapping flight.

Nest: Purple Martins like to nest in compartmented boxes. Nest is made out of grass, twigs & leaves inside the nest chamber.

Habitat: Open areas near water, meadows, and farmland.

Diet: ants, bees, flies, dragonflies, beetles, moths & butterflies.

Eggs: 4-5, white and unmarked, Incubated for 15-18 days.

* Flocks gather together prior to migration in august & September. They winter in the Amazon Basin.

Tree Swallow Tachycineta bicolor

Size: 5-6 inches long

Coloration: Iridescent green-black, or blue-black above and bright white beneath.

Nest: In tree cavities, woodpecker holes & bluebird boxes. They compete with bluebirds, starlings, house sparrows & house wrens. They are more aggressive than our other swallows, they will defend an area within a radius of about 15 yards from the nest. The nest is lined with grass, weeds, rootlets & pine needles.

Eggs: 4-7 pinkish-whitish eggs, after they are laid the female will add feathers (usually white ones) from other birds. Incubation is 14-15 days, the young fledge after three weeks.

*Earliest of our swallows to return north, in late March and April.

Diet: Unlike other species, they will switch to eating berries & seeds to survive cold periods when insects become torpid.

Habitat: Still waters of lakes, ponds, and marshes.

Northern Rough-Winged Swallow Stelgidopteryx serripennis

Size: 5 inches in length

Coloration: Nondescript brown and white.

*Named for small serrations in its outermost wing feathers.

Nest: Cavities in rock faces, quarries, & stream banks. Also in kingfisher burrows, drainpipes and culverts, sometimes they excavate their own burrows. At the end of a 1-6 ft. tunnel they heap twigs, bark, roots & weeds, and line a central cup with fine grasses.

Eggs: 4-8 pure white, 16 days for incubation.

Bank Swallow Riparia riparia

Size: 5 ½ inches long.

Coloration: They have a brown back, and a dark band across its pale breast. They have small feet and tiny bills.

Nest: They usually dig their own burrows, up to five feet deep in dirt banks, piles of gravel or sand and road cuts. They require banks that are steep & high. They nest from May - July.

Eggs: 4-5 eggs

Habitat: Fields, wetlands & along rivers and ponds.

Diet: Flies, beetles, wasps, winged ants, dragonflies, stoneflies, moths & other flying insects.

*Known as the sand martin in Europe & Asia.

Cliff Swallow Hirundo pyrrhonota

Size: 5-6 inches long.

Coloration: Pale rusty or buff colored rump. From below the tail; appears squared off.

Diet: Flying beetles, flies, winged ants, bees, wasps, mayflies, lace flies & other insects.

Nest: They build gourd-shaped nests out of pellets of mud, attached to cliffs, bridge supports, dams & unpainted barns. 1-2 weeks to build, and more than 1,000 mud pellets. Colonies can be very dense. Nets is lined with grass, hair, and feathers.

Eggs: 3-6 white, spotted with brown. Both incubate for 15 days. A female will sometimes lay an egg in another swallows nest, or carry an egg in her bill to a neighboring nest.

Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica

Flight Pattern: Looks like an aerial ballet - with the birds sideslipping, stalling, twisting & turning low over water or fields in pursuit of their prey.

Diet: House flies, horse flies, beetles, wasps, bees, winged ants & others. In bad weather they will land and eat spiders, snails, berries or seeds.

Nest: Pairs nest on their own, or near a few other pairs. They build bowl shaped nests out of mud and straw, fixing them to walls, beams and eaves of barns and other outbuildings. They often line their nests with poultry feathers.

Eggs: 4-5 eggs, which are white spotted with brown. Both sexes incubate - switching about every 15 minutes. Young leave three weeks after hatching, some pairs raise a second brood.

*Most widespread swallow species in the world.

*Also my FAVORITE bird