This bird showed up on our porch the other night, and now he seems to have a favorite place to perch. While trying to figure out what he was, I watched him snag some bugs that were flying by. Any help with an ID would be much appreciated(by me, my wife and my daughter). We went through our Audubon book and couldn't find any matches for size/color/beak shape.
Thanks
Dug
Last edited by Dug Threewitt; 07-17-2009 at 07:26 AM.
Looks like an adult barn swallow to me. They're everywhere around where I live. The young have been sitting on nearby fences waiting to be fed. Great photo opportunities!
Very nice to have around, and indeed a Barn Swallow, Hirundo rustica, which is the same species found in Europe and n. Africa.
Swallows and martins catch insects while in the air and are therefore classed as "aerial insectivores". Other species in this ecological grouping are the nightjars and goatsuckers, flycatchers, and swifts. I bring this up because it is clear from various bird monitoring programs that many species in this particular group are in severe decline, at least in North America. I think the same situation pertains in Europe (Europeans confirm please). There are probably many reasons why populations of these species are declining but there's no single answer that fits all. Have a look at this short article from Bird Studies Canada:
Thanks Derrick and John.
I made the mistake of looking at perching birds(since it was perched on a nail). I should have looked through the whole book(although after your posts, I checked the book and the photo didn't look anything like it) I guess they just chose a slightly different coloring for the book.
Thanks again
Dug
Swallows are in the perching bird group Dug, so you were on the right track. Passerines as they are called is the largest group of birds making up over half the roughly 10,000 species of birds currently recognised.