Identify Barn Swallow

The Swallow is one of the most popular birds in Europe, and country

folk wait impatiently for its return from tropical and southern Africa at

the end of March or in April. It literally seeks out the company of human

beings. Its nests are generally situated inside buildings - in

cowsheds, stables, passages and porchways - and seldom on

their outer walls. The basin shaped nest, which is open from above, is

made of lumps of mud stuck together with saliva; the gaps are filled

with blades of grass or straw. It is usually built entirely by the female,

while the male fetches the material, especially straw. About 750-1,400

lumps of mud are needed for one nest and the rough structure is

finished in eight or nine days. The cup is lined with straw, feathers and

hair.

The 4-6 white eggs with brownish-red spots, which are laid in May,

June orJuly, are incubated for 14-16 days by the female. The parents

tend the young for about three weeks in the nest, feed them and teach

them how to catch insects for a week or so after they have left it, and

then begin a second brood, as a rule in the same nest; some pairs

nest a third time.

When the breeding season is over, the Swallows gather together in

flocks, sometimes numbering tens of thousands of birds, and spend

the night in reedbeds around ponds until September or October, when

it is time to migrate. The Swallow's enormous range includes Europe,

Asia, northern Africa and almost the whole of North America. The

Swallow is an elegant metallic dark blue and white bird a little larger

than the House Martin, with a deep red throat and

forehead. In flight we can recognise it by its deeply forked tail with long

streamers. It spends most of its time on the wing and flies tens of

kilometres every day. It also catches its food - winged

insects - entirely in the air.