Barn Swallow

The Barn Swallow is a sleek, agile aerial insectivore and the most widespread and familiar swallow species on Earth, breeding across most of the Northern Hemisphere. Its glossy, deep-blue back, rich rufous-orange throat and forehead, and buffy-orange underparts make it one of the most colorful North American swallows.

Its most distinctive feature is its long, deeply forked "swallow tail," formed by elongated outer tail feathers, most pronounced in adult males. Barn Swallows are graceful, fast fliers, often seen skimming low over fields and water in pursuit of insects.

Key field marks

• Long, deeply forked tail with elongated streamers
• Glossy steel-blue upperparts
• Rufous-orange throat and forehead
• Buffy-orange underparts (paler in some populations)
• Small white spots visible on the tail in flight

Similar species

Cliff Swallow has a squared tail, buffy rump, and pale forehead patch, quite different from Barn Swallow's deep tail fork and dark rufous forehead. Tree Swallow has a notched (not deeply forked) tail and clean white (not orange) underparts. No other North American swallow combines the long tail streamers with a rufous throat.

Habitat

Forages over open country — fields, pastures, marshes, and water bodies — and nests almost exclusively on human-made structures: barns, sheds, bridges, culverts, and eaves, rarely using natural sites like cliff ledges or caves today.

Range

One of the most widely distributed landbirds in the world, breeding across North America, Europe, and Asia. North American breeders are long-distance migrants, wintering in Central and South America; other populations winter in Africa and southern Asia.

Behavior

Highly aerial and social, Barn Swallows often forage in loose groups low over fields and water, and gather in large pre-migratory flocks, sometimes numbering in the thousands, staging on wires before departure.

Voice

Gives a constant chatter of soft, twittering warbles interspersed with a sharp "vit-vit" or a metallic alarm call near the nest.

Feeding and nesting

Feeds exclusively on flying insects caught in continuous low, swooping flight. Builds an open cup nest of mud pellets mixed with grass, plastered to a vertical wall or beam, almost always under an overhanging roof or eave; nests are often reused and refurbished across years, and pairs frequently raise two broods per season.