Jun 172010
Yesterday my house was set upon by a flock of birds of a species I’m unfamiliar with, and have never seen here before. Normally I get starlings that set up shop under the eaves and make one hell of a racket, but these guys are new. They seem to get a kick out of just hanging onto the sides of the logs, but then flock around you if you wander outside near them.
And in case there was any question about whether or not these birds serve some useful purpose…
7 Responses to “What kind of birds are these?”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Those are almost certainly cliff swallows, _Petrochelidon pyrrhonota_, a common migratory bird of the family Hirundinidae. They eat the bad bugs and harm nothing, so you’re lucky to have them. Cliff swallows are the birds famous for their annual springtime migration from their winter home in Argentina to nesting sites in the Chino Hills north of Mission San Juan Capistrano in California.
Hopefully they’ll eat the skeeters afore they move on. Never seen ’em around here before, though. Perhaps their migratory pattern has changed? If so, it’s clearly a result of Global Warming. Or the Gulf oil spill. Or Halliburton. Something…
Yeah, they sure do look like cliff swallows:
http://sdakotabirds.com/species/cliff_swallow_info.htm
They have an extremely wide range and are common up here in North Dakota also. It’s amazing the cat could catch one; when they are in flight they are some of the most agile birds of all.
The ones around here nest in burrows they excavate in the side of hard soil buttes.
They do indeed eat mosquitoes, but around here at least seem to prefer larger prey like dragonflies and butterflies where they can get larger chunks of meat for their efforts.
One oddball finding is that increased numbers of active cliff swallow nests in a vicinity leads to increased number of mosquitoes in the same area,
as discussed in the scientific paper: “Mosquito abundance is correlated with cliff swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) colony size.”
Although I’m not an expert on western birds (I live in Texas), I recall that the typical range of the cliff swallow extends more or less to all the Rocky Mountain states, which would include Utah.
All the way from Alaska into Central America:
http://sdakotabirds.com/species/maps/cliff_swallow_map.htm
…And if they eat dragonflies, you’ll probably see more skeeters: dragonfly nymphs eat skeeter young all day long.
Watching one dogfight a big dragonfly is a blast…the swallow has speed on its side (although the dragonfly is surprisingly fast also) but the dragonfly beats it in maneuverability, so it’s pretty much an even contest as to whether the dragonfly will get away.
You have to freeze-frame it to see what’s going on, but a whole squadron of them appear to be chasing dragonflies in this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOZh_hZ_fCY