Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) photos by Larry Jordan
Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) are cavity nesters just like Bluebirds. If you are a Bluebird trail monitor, especially if your trail is near water, you are very likely to have Tree Swallows nesting in your nest boxes. Click on photos for full sized images.
One of my Bluebird trails is at Lema Ranch, a facility with five ponds on the premises. Until this year I had six nest boxes at Lema Ranch, placed at least 100 yards apart for Western Bluebirds. The Bluebirds and Tree Swallows would sometimes compete for those six boxes even though there are many oak trees with probably hundreds of natural cavities in which either species could nest.
This year I doubled the number of nest boxes to twelve, placing them about 25 feet apart. This pairing of nest boxes where these two species coexist has been studied by several people, including Kevin Berner, Research Committee Chairman for the North American Bluebird Society, and generally is found to benefit both species.
When approaching a monitored nest box (and here I want to state that all nest boxes should be monitored) occupied by Tree Swallows you might see either of the two situations expressed in the photos above, or you may see both. You may see one of the adult pair atop the nest box and the other adult at the entrance hole. You may also encounter this.
Tree Swallows are fierce defenders of their nest. At any sign of disturbance at a swallow nest site, every swallow within hearing range comes to investigate and harass the intruder. When checking nest boxes, the adult Tree Swallows will often dive bomb me as shown in the photo above. They come very close but have never made contact with me.
These are the nestlings at about two weeks old. They will be ready to fledge within a week.
A couple of weeks ago while monitoring the Lema Ranch trail, as I reached the last nest box I found this…
a nestling sticking its head out of the nest box entrance and begging for food.
Most nestlings depart the nest at an age of 18 to 22 days. These nestlings looked like they were being coaxed out of the nest by their parents.
One of the best things about monitoring your nest boxes is that you can predict fairly closely what day the nestlings may fledge. Nest departure can occur at any time of day and this was late in the afternoon, getting near sundown.
The young didn’t fledge this evening but I shot some video of the adults trying to coax them out of the nest. You can see the chick sticking its head out of the entrance, watching as the parents fly by several times teasing it. At the 1:05 mark you will see an adult doing a “mock” feeding where it approaches the nestling but doesn’t actually feed it. That chick was almost completely out of the nest box.
The next segment shows a different nest box two weeks later with one of the nestlings about four days younger that the other five in the box. The youngest nestling actually gets fed in that segment.
Those little chicks sure are fun to watch!
If you want to see more bird photos from around the world, check out World Bird Wednesday!
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Beautiful series of photos. I like watching birds nesting they are very protective with there babies ^_^ And the mommas do take care of them very well. ^_^ Thanks for sharing!
so cute. i’d not want to leave room service, either. 🙂
Such a nice post, – perfect for WBW!
Interesting post Larry! It sounds like we could crowd our nesting boxes a bit more doesn’t it?
That first sweeping scene in your video was terrific… Like Hitchcock!
Superb post and what a real delight to see your nest boxes bringing up these youngsters
Fantastic
Tree Swallows are such beautiful colours!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.
Fun for us to watch also! Great photos and thanks for posting.
Lovely to see the youngsters doing so well.
Very nice shots.
Very productive nest boxes. I enjoyed the videos!
Hi larry, I enjoyed this post. the photos of the chicks are just adorable. Great captures. Thanks for sharing!
How fun it must be for you to observe all those beautiful Tree Swallows. Fantastic series of photographs and video! I’ve been watching a House Wrens and Eastern Bluebird in two separate nest boxes on our property. It really is a delight watching how the adults tend to their young. Outstanding post!
A wonderful & informative post, Larry! What lovely little birds.
Tree Swallows at the top of my fav songbird list, just adore them and every little thing about them. You took some wonderful images too!!!
Nice photos. I would love to have room for that many boxes. The flight photo is particularly good.
Very interesting post. I have recently spent time on the Carden Alvar an hour north of my home where there are more than a hundred boxes fr eastern bluebirds. More than a few of the boxes are inhabited by swallows.