For The Birds

Title

For The Birds

Artist

Jon Burch Photography

Medium

Photograph - Digital Capture

Description

The American Cliff Swallow averages 5 inches long with a tiny bill. The adult cliff swallow has an iridescent blue back and crown, brown wings and tail, and buff rump. The nape and forehead are white. The underparts are white except for a red face and the tail is square-ended.

Young birds are essentially brown above and whitish below, except for the buff rump and dark face. The only confusion species is the closely related cave swallow, which is richer in color and has a cinnamon rump and forehead. Like all swallows and martins, cliff swallows subsist primarily on a diet of insects which are caught in flight.

The birds breed in large colonies building conical mud nests and lay 3 to 6 eggs. The natural nest sites are on cliffs, preferably beneath overhangs, but as with the Eurasian house martin, man-made structures are now the principal locations for breeding. Female American cliff swallows are known to lay eggs in and move previously laid eggs into the nests of other birds within the colony.

This species has always been plentiful in the west of North America, where there are many natural sites, but the abundance in the east has varied. European settlement provided many new nest sites on buildings, but the population declined in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the supply of unpainted barns declined. There has been a subsequent revival as dams and bridges have provided suitable sites. - Wikki

This photograph was made at "Register Cliffs" near Guernsey, Wyoming.

Image copyright 2014 Jon Burch Photography

Uploaded

July 30th, 2014

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