Barn Swallow

Hirundo rustica
STANFORD LOCATIONS:

Common migrant and summer resident throughout campus, attaching its mud nests to walls and the eaves of buildings.
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs
Mating System
Dev.
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
BUILDING
F-M
I: 13-17 DAYS
ALTRICIAL
6 feet - 40 feet +
MF
4-5(4-7)
MONOG
(POLYGYN)
F: 18-23 DAYS
MF
BREEDING: Open country, savanna, esp near water, agricultural areas. 2 broods.
DISPLAYS: Males pursue females in long, graceful courtship flights; on landing, pair rub heads and necks, interlock bills or mutually preen.
NEST: Usu plastered on ledges and walls of building, occ in cave, culvert, under bridge, or in cliff crevice; of mud pellets, straw, heavily lined with feathers. Built in 7-14 days.
EGGS: White, spotted with brown. 0.8" (19 mm).
DIET: Also occ berries, seeds.
CONSERVATION: Winters from Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, and Panama s to s tip of S.A. Rare cowbird host.
NOTES: Often nest in small colonies. Helpers often seen at nests, occ feed nestlings; helpers usu yearlings or immatures from first clutch aiding their parents. Breeders tend to return to same colony, same cluster of nests within colony, occ same nest and same mate. In spite of not having brood patch, male incubates effectively although not routinely. House Sparrows and phoebes occ usurp nests. Drink and bathe on wing. After fledging, young return to roost in nest for few days.
ESSAYS: Clutch Sizes; Parasitic Swallows; Cooperative Breeding; Coloniality; Site Tenacity; Incubation.
REFERENCES: Beecher et al., 1985; Brown, 1986; Brown and Brown, 1986; Withers, 1977.

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Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).