Male Barn Swallow

Swallows are small birds with dark, glossy-blue backs, red throats, pale underparts and long tail streamers. Find out more

The Barn and Tree Swallows get their name from catching the insects they eat in mid flight.

Food. Flies of all types make up the majority of the Barn Swallow’s diet, along with beetles, bees, wasps, ants, butterflies, moths, and other flying insects.

Status Threatened “Threatened” means the species lives in the wild in Ontario, is not endangered, but is likely to become endangered if steps are …

Swallows are excellent flyers, and use these skills to feed and attract a mate. Some species, like the mangrove swallow, are territorial, whereas others are not and simply defend their nesting site.

The barn swallow is about six inches long and has a dark slate blue head and wings. It has a dark rusty orange throat and forehead and a paler orange chest and underside.

Not only does the barn swallow have the distinction of being the most widely distributed and abundant of all swallows, it is also

Backyard Birds (class Aves, subphylum Vertebrata, phylum Chordata, kingdom ia, domain Eukarya)

Watch the progress of nesting birds through live bird cams, updated videos, and photographs. A worldwide list of bird nest webcams is featured.

This family is comprised of swallows and martins which are characterised by their adaptation to aerial feeding. The name “martin” tends to be used for the squarer-tailed species, and the name “swallow” for the more fork-tailed species; however, there is no scientific distinction between these two groups.