Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

                                                                    Photo by Ryan Sanderson

My DK Birds of Canada Field Guide says the Barn Swallow is "the most wide-ranging swallow in the world...cosmopolitan...found breeding or wintering on almost all continents".

The Barn Swallow is also the swallow I remember most , from my youth, on visits to my maternal grandfather's  farm north of Toronto, in southern Ontario, in the 1950s.

They eat a wide variety of flying insects and follow farm machinery, even riding lawnmowers, to feed on stirred-up insects.

They have adapted to nesting in and on man-made structures, such as my grandfathers farm buildings and sheds.   They are abundant and widespread in open country and agricultural lands, especially near water.

They are widespread across lower Canada, the U.S.A, and Mexico and they interbreed with with both Cliff and Cave Swallows.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder