Bird of the Week – Barn Swallow
Barn Swallows are uncommon in Interior and Southcentral Alaska, but pretty easy to find in Southeastern. WC got this photo near the Yakutat Airport. For many years, WC chased steelhead trout along the Situk River, outside of Yakutat. For obvious reasons, WC carried only a pocket camera while fishing, so image quality isn’t great here.
Barn Swallow, Yakutat, Alaska
The Barn Swallow is the most widely distributed and abundant swallow in the world. It breeds throughout most of North America, Europe, and Asia and winters in Central and South America, southern Spain, Morocco, Egypt, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, India, Indochina, Malaysia, and Australia. Originally nesting primarily in caves, the Barn Swallow has almost completely converted to breeding under the eaves of buildings or inside artificial structures such as bridges and culverts. There’s a colony of Barn Swallows nesting in one of the large culverts on the road around the Yakutat Airport.
There’s a fifth species of Swallow in Alaska, the Violet-Green Swallow. But, alas, WC doesn’t have a decent photo of one. Sorry.
Camera geek stuff: not available, pocket camera
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Feel the Bern,Alaska? Woo-hoo!
What is there not to like about barn swallows. They eat zillions of skeeters,the breed prolifically,they eat more skeeters and feed them to their young, they nest in man made outbuildings and porches for close-in skeeter control work and they eat skeeters. Noisy, too, Real easy to run over when they perch on gravel roads. About as senseless around vehicles as red headed woodpeckers. Swallows and swifts remind me of Sabre jets in design,without afterburners. We just had about 8 inches of snow, Swallows aren’t here,yet, Soon.