Barn Swallow
Hirundo rustica

Range:
Breeding: Labrador, west to Alaska, south to Georgia, Alabama, and Mexico. Winter: South America.

Habitat:
Breeding: Farmlands, rural and abundant areas.

Special Habitat Requirements:
Man-made structures, especially buildings, for nesting. Open bars with suitable areas for next construction on beams.

Nesting: Egg dates:
May 11 to August 3, New York. Clutch size: 4 to 6, typically 4 or 5. Incubation period: About 15 days. Nesting period: 16 to 23 days. Broods per year: 1 or 2 (at warmer latitudes). Age at sexual maturity: 1 year. Nest site: Nests inside sheds and barns (often in colonies), under bridges, culverts. Formerly nested on cliffs, in caves and in niches in rocks.

Territory Size:
Probably restricted to the nest site. Sample Densities: Usually 6 to 8 nests per site is maximum, but as many as 55 nests have been reported in a single barn 63 at a Lunenburg, Massachusetts barn. 20 pairs per square mile (8 pairs/km²) in favorable habitat in North Dakota. 11 pairs per 100 acres (40 ha) in mixed agricultural and residential habitats including buildings.

Foraging:
Major foods: Flying insects, occasionally takes fruits. Substrate: Air. Techniques: Hawking, skimming water surface. Preferred feeding habitat: Over ponds, lakes, rivers, and fields, seldom feeds more than 0.5 mile (0. km) from nest site.

Comments:
The diet consists almost entirely of animal matter. Nearly all the food is taken o the wing. Swallow in Illinois spent much time feeding over edge shrub areas. Feeding densities averaged 26 birds per 100 acres (40 ha).