Barn Swallow
Quick Facts About Barn Swallows
|
Scientific Name |
Hirundo rustica |
|
Common Name(s) |
Barn Swallow |
|
Animal Type |
Land bird, but found anywhere with flying insects, including near water sources. |
|
Diet |
Flying insects, especially flies, wasps, and beetles. Catches their prey in flight. |
|
Found |
Year-round and state-wide in North Carolina. Look for Barn Swallows in suburban areas, marshes, and around ponds, lakes, and agricultural areas. |
|
Description |
Up to 7.75 inches (20 cm). Both sexes look similar. Dark, glossy, steel-blue head, back, wings and tail. Underparts rust-colored. Throat and portion of head above beak also rust-colored. Deeply forked tail; obvious only in flight. |
Barn Swallow Images
A perched Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica shows off its beautiful, glossy, steel-gray and pale rust feathers. Bird. Photograph taken by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.
A perched Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica stares into the author’s camera. Bird. Photograph taken by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.
A perched Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica shows off its beautiful, glossy, steel-gray and pale rust feathers. Bird. Photograph taken by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.
Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica. Bird. Photograph taken by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.
Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica. Bird. Photograph taken by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.
A Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica peeks over the edge of her large, mud and straw nest. Bird. Photograph taken by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.
A Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica incubating eggs on its large, vertical, mud nest calls to its mate, who is out hunting. Bird. Photograph taken by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.
A Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica nest. Barn Swallows build large, distinctive, pouch-shaped nests out of hundreds of small mud balls. Photograph taken by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.
Fun Facts About Barn Swallows
Aerial Acrobat Allies
- Barn Swallows are tremendous aerialists. They swoop, swerve, and zoom across the landscape for hours at a time and with incredible precision to snatch flying insects out of the air.
- In one estimate, a single Barn Swallow may cover 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) a day when hunting food to feed to their nestlings (Bull and Farrand Jr. 1994).
- They perch for only moments before flying off again so it’s hard sometimes to see their beautiful plumage.
- Not only do they eat on the wing, Barn Swallows also drink water and bathe in flight.
- To drink, they skim the water surface with their beaks open.
- To bathe, they fly through rain.
- Barn Swallows are extremely beneficial to humans, as many of their preferred prey—like wasps and flies—are major pests to humans and can be dangerous besides.
Going On A Trip
- Barn Swallows are found around the world and migrate annually.
- They migrate up to 12,4000 miles (20,000 miles) round trip every year over the course of four to five weeks per leg (Unwin 2011), so cover approximately 354 miles/day or 571 km/day—a truly remarkable feat for a bird species the size of a sparrow.
- During their migration, they fly at approximately 2000 feet (600 m) altitude (Unwin 2011), lower than many other migrating birds but still rather impressive.
How Male Barn Swallows Impress the Ladies
- Barn Swallows are the only swallow species with forked tails. Their forked tails are important visual indicators of sexual fitness, especially in males.
- Researchers in Ontario, Canada studied the impact of tail streamer length on fertilization success among male Barn Swallows and discovered:
- The studied males had longer tail streamers than females: 3.4 inches ± 0.03 inches (86.9 mm ± 0.7 mm) versus 3.0 inches ± 0.02 inches (76.3 ± 0.5 mm).
- Tail streamer length also varied between individual males, which impacted the individual birds’ mating success. The researchers found that:
- Male Barn Swallows with longer tail streamers compared to other males started to breed earlier in the season and were able to breed with females in prime body condition.
- Tail streamer length didn’t predict whether a male Barn Swallow’s mate would decide to mate with a longer-tailed male also.
- Male birds that did mate with another male’s mate had longer tail streamers than the cuckolded males at 3.6 inches ± 0.04 inches (90.2 mm ± 1.0 mm) versus 3.4 inches ± 0.04 inches (87.1 mm ± 1.1 mm) (Oddmund et al. 2006, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0065-0).
- But tail streamer length isn’t the only male swallow characteristic that female Barn Swallows evaluate when deciding between various male swallow suitors.
- One study published in Ecological Research showed that female Barn Swallows also consider:
- The complexity and tempo of the males’ song, including how well different males mimic the calls of Barn Swallow nestlings,
- The color and saturation of the males’ rust-colored throat patches and underparts,
- The quality of the territory and resources different males can offer (Hasegawa 2018, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-017-1527-3).
- Barn Swallow territories “seem to extend to extend in a straight line from the nest to the nearest good perch” (Stokes and Stokes 1983).
- One study published in Ecological Research showed that female Barn Swallows also consider:
Related Posts And Where To Go From Here
To discover more North Carolina land birds, click the button below.
To discover other North Carolina birds, click the button below.
To explore more about how North Carolina animals live, click the button below.
To see a full list of all the individual animals featured on Now I Wonder, click the button below.
