Birds: Swallows – Barn, Bank, Cliff, Tree and Violet-Green

Birds: Barn Swallow

One of the most beautiful fliers in my memory bank is the Barn Swallow. Its colors and its grace are remarkable. I could watch them for hours. One of the images I have in my mind is a set of swallows flying below us, while we are on a bridge overlooking a stream in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. I imagine the body of the swallow, as it flashes those translucent tail feathers, ever-so-slightly altering direction and catching a bug in mid-flight.

Other images are of the swallows from underneath, while they show the rust color throats and their buff/white bellies, while cruising over the golf course in Gearhart, Oregon.

The prettiest image is also one of the dirtiest, as the nests of the barn swallows are assembled with mud daubs with fecal droppings. The mud tends to drip all over the area below the nests. These birds’ nests are particularly dirty in barns. Farmers frequently try to destroy the messy nests, which may be one of the reasons that the species is on the decline.

Violet-Green Swallow

One of the most easily identifiable, because of its white tail-patch on an otherwise green and violet backed bird, is the VG swallow. They are glide masters and can catch insects with amazing ease in midair.

Bank Swallows

Where the bank is both the bed and the nest for these beautiful fliers, consider the bank swallow. Their nests are usually dug directly into the mud banks and not patched together with mud droplets. The environments are more drab than the digs of their cousin swallows. This also makes them less flashy but more abundant than their cousin swallows, particularly along the streams in Colorado, where we have spotted them more frequently.

Their Latin name (Riparia riparia) indicates that these flyers are found in riparian zones, which is where you find the water and the mud to make those nests and feed their young.

Cliff Swallows

One swallow that seems a combination of the others in the extended species is the Cliff Swallow. It has the buff back of the barn swallows belly and the red of its throat; however, it does not have the same tail. And it has what looks like a ring around its neck, and a white mark on the forehead, which seem to be the most obvious of markers.

They build their nests under bridges and on cliffs, rock faces, and other places with the mud daub technique of other swallows.

Tree Swallows

The Tree Swallow is a bird who arrives early to the show. They sometimes return to Capistrano or to your neighborhood. They tend to be the first of swallows to arrive in early spring. Leaving their wintering grounds in southern US, Mexico, or Central America, the tree swallow tends to return to the same place each spring to begin courting, nesting, mating, and of course, eating. They find their food close to their nesting areas (sometimes your backyard).

Tree Swallows are from 5-6 inches in length and the male has distinctive iridescent blue upper-parts and bright white under-parts. In fall, the maleś upper-parts appear almost greenish. The female has duller, brownish, upper-parts and grayish under-parts. The call of these birds is beautiful and melodic.

Swallows in song: ¨Donna, Donna”

There was a song by Joan Baez that we used to sing at the Cottonwood Gulch in Thoreau, New Mexico. I always associated the song with winging swallows and the majesty of free will, when we sang that one. It was a favorite of the Turquoise Trail and it sounded powerful in the voices of the sopranos and altos. Here are the lyrics:

“Donna Donna”

On a wagon bound for market
there’s a calf with a mournful eye.
High above him there’s a swallow,
winging swiftly through the sky.

[Chorus:]
How the winds are laughing,
they laugh with all their might.
Laugh and laugh the whole day through,
and half the summer’s night.
Donna, Donna, Donna, Donna; Donna, Donna, Donna, Don.
Donna, Donna, Donna, Donna; Donna, Donna, Donna, Don.

“Stop complaining!” said the farmer,
“Who told you a calf to be?
Why don’t you have wings to fly with,
like the swallow so proud and free?”

[Chorus:]
How the winds are laughing,
they laugh with all their might.
Laugh and laugh the whole day through,
and half the summer’s night.
Donna, Donna, Donna, Donna; Donna, Donna, Donna, Don.
Donna, Donna, Donna, Donna; Donna, Donna, Donna, Don.

Calves are easily bound and slaughtered,
never knowing the reason why.
But whoever treasures freedom,
like the swallow has learned to fly.

[Chorus:]
How the winds are laughing,
they laugh with all their might.
Laugh and laugh the whole day through,
and half the summer’s night.
Donna, Donna, Donna, Donna; Donna, Donna, Donna, Don.
Donna, Donna, Donna, Donna; Donna, Donna, Donna, Don.