Birds & Blooms - USA (2020-08 & 2020-09)

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Northern rough-

winged swallows

are less social than

other swallows,

often seen alone or

in small groups.

Hole-Some Neighbors

Steel blue on the top and snowy white

below, the tree swallow was named for

its habit of building its nest inside the

holes of trees. These types of natural

cavities are becoming harder to find

in many areas as dead trees and limbs

are removed from yards and parks. But

the tree swallow benefits from a happy

coincidence—it uses exactly the same

size of nest hole that bluebirds prefer.

Devoted bluebird fans have put out

vast numbers of nest boxes all across

the continent. The bluebirds can’t use

all of them, so many of those boxes are

occupied by tree swallows every year.

And the swallows also have their own

fans who put out boxes specifically for

them in favored spots, often where open

fields are close to ponds or rivers.

The violet-green swallow, another

cavity nester, has a brighter mix of