Farmland Swallows and Sparrows

     Several kinds of birds feed in southeastern Pennsylvania farmland in summer, including American robins, common grackles, killdeer plovers, mourning doves, Canada geese and others.  And two other cropland bird species- barn swallows and house sparrows, are small, adaptable, raise young in barns and get much of their food in nearby fields.
     However, those swallows and sparrows don't compete for food or shelter with each other, which is why they flourish in the same habitats.  And each kind rears two broods of young every summer, which increases their populations to the point of being abundant and omnipresent in summer farmland in this area.
     But barn swallows and house sparrows have characteristics that differ from each other.  And each species is built for what it does to get food.  It's entertaining to watch little flocks of the slender, streamlined swallows sweep swiftly over fields and meadows, swirling and diving after flying insects, without collision with their fellow swallows!  By mid-July, through August, many adult swallows and their young of the year scour the fields of flying insects, and line up on roadside wires to rest between feeding forays.
     Barn swallows are metallic purple on top and light orange below.  They have narrow, swept-back wings for fast flight and forked tails for mid-air maneuvers at top speed.
     Native to North America, barn swallows originally nested in the mouths of caves and on rock cliffs.  Today these adaptable birds hatch chicks on the sides of support beams in barns and under small bridges, all in farmland where insects are abundant.  They build their protecting nurseries of mud pellets from mud they gather along streams and ponds and plaster those pellets, one by one, to the beams.  Due to that adaptation, there probably are more barn swallows in North America today than ever in their history.        
     During August and September, barn swallows gather in swarms and drift south to Central America and northern South America where flying insects are abundant during northern winters.  But their mud pellet nests still cling to beams as reminders of their having been in this area.
     House sparrows are not sparrows, but weaver finches from Eurasia where they long ago adapted to agricultural practices and living in barns and village buildings.  Today in the Old World, and in the Americas, house sparrows raise young in sheltering crevices in barns and other buildings, including in cities, and feed on weed and grass seeds, "waste" grain in fields and invertebrates, all on the ground in cropland near where they hatched.  House sparrows are permanent residents and don't migrate; living all their lives in one area.  However, because of population pressures, these birds spread across the landscape, generation after generation, as some young birds seek homes near where they hatched.    
     House sparrows are brown with darker streaks, which camouflage them in fields and around nesting sites.  Males in summer are handsome with black "bibs", gray crowns and cheeks, and chestnut necks.  Though males don't sing to attract a mate, they do chirp and strut vigorously to gain a female's attention and affection.
     By mid-summer, flocks of 50 or more house sparrows, young and older, gather here and there in grain fields and along country roads to feed on invertebrates, grain missed by harvesters and weed and grass seeds.  When those flocks are on rural roads to eat spilled grain, they all fly up at once into nearby shrubbery or corn fields to perch and wait for vehicular traffic to pass by.  Then they flutter down to the road again to continue ingesting the grain off the blacktop until the next vehicle approaches.    
    When riding in farmland in summer, watch for barn swallows, house sparrows and other kinds of adaptable birds along the road and in bordering fields.  They add more pleasure to the ride.