Barn Swallow
Hirundo rustica · Swallows and Martins
Banding codeBARS
Keys to identifying it
1Size & shape
About 6.8 in long.
2Color pattern
- Deeply forked tail with long streamers
- Steel-blue back
- Rusty throat and forehead, buffy belly
3Habitat & season
Farms, bridges, open fields and ponds
In northern Utah: summer.
Seen most often in June, July and August.
Share of the region’s research-grade iNaturalist bird observations each month, scaled to this bird’s peak. Highlighted bars are its peak months.
4Voice
Long twittering song with grating rattles; a 'vit' call.
“a cheerful twitter with a 'zzzrt' buzz”
iNat 89725765 by Eric Schmidt · Williamstown, WI, USA · CC BY
Know it
- The most widespread swallow in the world.
- Builds a mud cup nest under bridges and eaves, one mouthful at a time.
- Females tend to prefer males with longer tail streamers.
Often confused with
Cliff Swallow- Northern Rough-winged Swallow
- Bank Swallow
From iNaturalist identification data for northern Utah.
From Wikipedia
The barn swallow is the most widespread species of swallow in the world, occurring on all continents, with vagrants reported even in Antarctica. It is a distinctive passerine bird with blue upperparts and a long, deeply forked tail. In Anglophone Europe, it is just called the swallow; in northern Europe, it is the only member of family Hirundinidae called a "swallow" rather than a "martin".
Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0