Barn Swallows

Barn Swallows are common everywhere in Lancaster county farmland in summer because they have the best of two worlds. There are many local impoundments, barnyards, and meadows where these swallows catch abundant flying insects, and lots of barns and bridge support beams where they raise young in mud pellet nests. 

Barn Swallows are pretty little birds that are deep iridescent purple above and orange below, with long forked tails for maneuvering in mid-air. They are graceful in flight while hunting flying insects, and quite entertaining. 

These swallows follow large grazing livestock in pastures and moving machinery in fields to snap up insects flushed by those big objects. The swallows even fly over flocks of blackbirds in summer fields to catch insects those larger foraging birds chase up.

This kind of swallow plasters mud pellets to the sides of support beams in barns and under bridges. Farmers like them because of the insects that they eat. The swallows gather bits of mud and roll them in their beaks to make the pellets they stick to those beams and each other, one pellet after another, to make their open-cup cradles. Parent swallows defend their young by diving at intruders and crying "skeet! skeet!"

Eating only flying insects, Barn Swallows must migrate to Central and South America for the northern winter. But next April they will return to Lancaster county cropland in abundance, to raise offspring and catch many insects to feed their youngsters, making this species valuable to farmers.

Photo courtesy of Stefan Berndtsson