Aerial Acrobats

Mike and I have empty nest syndrome now. All of our babies have fledged (moved out) and are living on their own. We have been visiting our neighbors and have noticed the aerial acrobats performed by small dark birds. Have you seen them?

They are usually flying around lakes, ponds, open fields, bridges, and highways. This species will fly quickly up, down, around, and change directions so fast, you lose track of them.  Do you know why they fly so frantically (crazily)? They are chasing insects. These swallows catch and swallow the insects as they fly. Swallows catch and eat, beetles, dragonflies, grasshoppers, moths, butterflies, bees, wasps, and flies. These birds will also drink water while they fly! They will fly over lakes, ponds, or rivers, and will scoop water with their beak. 

The largest swallow, and maybe the most well known, is the Purple Martin (Progne subis). This bird is larger than the American Robin. These beautiful dark birds will nest in birdhouses that look like apartment buildings. They like to be with friends and family! This is called colonial nesting, which means they nest in groups and not by themselves.

They have short, forked tails, long, pointed wings, and are an iridescent purple-blue color. Females are a dusty gray-brown color with some glossy purple-blue on their crown (head) and back. They feed higher in the sky than other swallows and, of course, eat the larger insects: dragonflies, grasshoppers, etc. When it is time to migrate south to South America, these birds gather in large groups and migrate together in HUGE flocks.

The next most commonly known swallow is the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica).  These birds have deeply forked tails with shiny blue backs and orange to peach colored chests, rusty foreheads and white bellies. Barn Swallows are larger than sparrows. These birds build mud nests in barns, garages, carports, bridges, and any other area that provides a protected ledge to hold a nest. They migrate to Central and South America for the winter.

Rough-winged Swallows, (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) are dusty gray-brown with light brown chests and dull white chests and bellies. They have short square-shaped tails. Their genus name “Stelgidopteryx” means scraper wing and their specific epithet “serripennis” means saw feather. Their name describes the small hooks along the edges of their wing feathers. If you rubbed your finger along the feathers, it would feel like you are rubbing on a fingernail file.

These birds balance the insect populations in our habitats.  I am just glad they do not compete with me for insects. I, like all mockingbirds, do not catch and eat insects as we fly. We like to eat insects as we perch or stand on the ground. However, like all birds, we do not have teeth to grind our food or to break the exoskeletons of insects into small pieces. We must eat grit and small bits of gravel to do the grinding for us. Next newsletter, I will explain more about our digestive system.