A General Reference to America’s Most Popular Little Bird
associatedcontent.com
By Lisa S
Published Aug 13, 2014
The Tree Swallow is one of North Americas most common birds. Tree Swallows are found in most parts of North America, however they will spend their winters in the most southern states and cross over into Central America as well.
The Tree Swallow is a small bird, averaging 5-6 inches long with a wingspan of 12-14 inches. They have forked tails and their beaks are extremely tiny. These small song birds prefer marshes and open fields, but can be found in suburban areas as well. The Tree Swallow is a migratory bird. They breed during warm weather in North America, and spend their winters in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Both the male and female Tree Swallow have beautiful blue-green feathers on their backs, with a white belly, however young yearling females are brown.
Tree Swallows throughly enjoy making use of nesting boxes that many people have in their yards. They are cavity nesters, and will nest in natural or artificial cavities. Tree Swallows do prefer to be near a water source and often travel and live in large flocks. If you are looking to attract wild birds to your yard, you will probably have great success in attracting Tree Swallows. Do to deforestation, there are far fewer nesting sites for Tree Swallows, so they will readily seek out any artificial dwellings that you may put out. Tree Swallows will then build their nests of grasses and twigs within these dwellings. An interesting fact about the Tree Swallow nest is that they prefer using feathers from other birds in line their nest to help keep their young warm and also help keep the level of parasites and mites low as well.
Tree Swallows will generally only lay one brood of eggs per season, although some pay attempt to lay a second brood if their first nest fails. This will only occur however if the first brood fails early in the breeding season. The female Tree Swallow generally lays 4-7 eggs and incubates them soley by herself, with no help from the male. The eggs will take approximately 14 days to hatch. The young will then take between 16-24 days before they fledge.
The Tree Swallow not only eats insects such as grasshoppers, crickets and beetles, but also makes a substantial use of vegetable foods like berries and seeds. They are the only species of swallow that incorporates such a large amount of vegetable foods into their diet.
