Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)                                                                                                    Last Quarter Moon

The flight of these sleek, long-tailed blue-and-buff swallows can look like an aerial ballet, with the birds sideslipping, stalling, twisting and turning low over water or fields in pursuit of their prey: house flies, horse flies, beetles, wasps, bees, winged ants and others. In bad weather, barn swallows may land and eat spiders, snails, berries or seeds. Pairs nest on their own, or near a few other pairs. Barn swallows are common, abundant breeding birds in Pennsylvania and the Northeast. They build bowl-shaped nests out of mud and straw, fixing them to walls, beams and eaves of barns and other outbuildings; in culverts and under bridges; and rarely on the cliff faces and caves which were the species' original habitat before Europeans settled North America.

Barn swallows often line their nests with poultry feathers. The adults scold human intruders and dive at them, zipping past their heads. Most females lay four or five eggs, which are white spotted with brown. During the day, both male and female take turns incubating, switching about every 15 minutes. Young leave the nest three weeks after hatching. Some pairs raise a second brood.

Barn swallows from eastern North America winter in Panama, Puerto Rico and throughout South America. Hirundo rustica is the most widespread swallow species in the world, breeding in North America, Europe and Asia.

Text from "Chimney Swift, Purple Martin and Swallows," by Chuck Fergus. Photo by R. Hays Cummins, Ohio Bird Collection.

The Barn Swallow

The swallow, darting like my heart, flies into the upper rafters of the hayloft.
She holds the new-mown whisps of hay,
swerving--a pendulum presence--as you capture the beating of my heart.

Up, into the dark, upper recesses of  this passionate, crimson bed,
the altar of my soul,
and your face, so inquisitive with youthful emotion, breath that comes in quick gasps,
touch of softness from the hay,
darting, free bird in your eyes,
we wonder at a flaming barn in sunset!

-- James Musgrave
   American Poet, Born in Fall River, Mass.

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