Tree Swallow

Welcome to this week’s Wildlife of the Week!

Our species

this week is the Tree Swallow!

Tachycineta bicolor

This week’s Wildlife of the Week is the beautiful Tree Swallow. These small attractive birds have a streamlined body with a short pointed bill, long pointed wings and a short square or slightly notched tail. Adult males are a flashy iridescent blue-green above and white below with a thin black eye mask; females are somewhat duller with more brown in their upperparts, and juveniles are completely brown above.

Tree Swallows are agile flyers and are extremely aerobatic as they forage for flying insect prey. They feed on small, aerial insects that they catch in their mouths during their energetic flight. Tree swallows winter along the Gulf Coast and into Central and South America where they form large communal roosts. They migrate north during the spring and breed. They are in Alabama now, nesting and raising their young.

After breeding, Tree Swallows gather in large flocks to molt and migrate. Tree Swallows prefer open habitats such as fields and wetlands, usually adjacent to water. They are cavity nesters and will nest in tree cavities (where they get their name) and artificial nest boxes. Large foraging flocks are frequently seen over wetlands, water, and agricultural fields. Tree Swallows are a familiar sight in summer fields and wetlands across northern North America. Tree swallows can often be seen hunting over open areas in White Springs, around the Visitor Center and in Buckeye Impoundment on the refuge.

(Photos by Tom Ress)