Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota)

How Cliff Swallows Build a Nest

April 15, 2022 When Cliff Swallows arrive on the breeding grounds in North America, the dirty work begins. The swallows scoop up mud in their beaks and carefully build a gourd-shaped nest with a tapered opening. They add a lining of dry grass to keep eggs warm. It takes days of work and a thousand

Where Swallows Go in Winter

October 7, 2021 Through all of spring and summer, swallows dart and sail overhead, their airborne grace a wonder to behold. But by October, the skies seem empty. Most swallows have flown south, in search of insects. The eight species of swallows that nest in the US - including this Cliff Swallow - migrate

Cliff Swallow--Strength in Numbers

May 2, 2021 Cliff Swallows gather in spring, in nesting colonies of up to 3,700 nests. Look for swarms of them under bridges, under the eaves of barns, or even the side of your house. The swallows use mud to make gourd-shaped nests - side by side and jumbled together. Watch the video! And Cliff

Swallows and Mud - A Myth?

October 23, 2019 The swallows that make mud nests in spring and catch flying insects all summer are now far south in Mexico, and Central and South America. It's only as recently as the end of the nineteenth century that ornithologists agreed that swallows, including this Cliff Swallow, migrate. Many

Connectivity

February 11, 2018 Migratory birds connect the Northern Plains with many parts of the Western Hemisphere. Barn and Cliff Swallows, Thick-billed Longspurs, this Lark Bunting, and many other birds winter from Central to southern South America. But their reproduction depends on the bounty of the prairie spring

The Swallows of Capistrano

March 19, 2017 Every year, the change from winter to spring brings millions of Cliff Swallows from Argentina to North America. Since the early 1800s, swallows had returned, year after year, to the Mission of San Juan Capistrano. But during a restoration project in the 1990s, the venerable mud nests were