Anyone who notices birds knows and admires the graceful, friendly Barn Swallow. No bird is better known as a welcome companion and useful friend of the farmer, as it dashes about the barnyard in pursuit of the troublesome insects that annoy both man and beast.  Though insects caught on the fly make up the bulk of the diet an occasional berry or seed is also consumed.

Upperparts are dark steel blue, while the underparts are buff with rusty throat and forehead.  The wings are pointed and their tails are deeply forked.  A constant liquid twittering and chattering accompany their fast zigzagging flight skimming close to the ground or over water.

In primitive times, the Barn Swallows plastered their mud nests on the rough walls of rocky caves, cliff crevices, under shelves of projecting rocks and even in holes or natural cavities in outbanks.  But as these nesting sites have become rare, the presence of the swallows has been determined by the availability of suitable buildings.  The Barn Swallow usually nest in small colonies of 8 to 10 pairs but on rare occasions colonies of as many as 50 nests are sometimes found.

But such charming rural scenes are fast disappearing.   The old-fashioned barn with wide-open doors, lofty haymows and the open sheds where wagons stood are being replaced by modern structures with tightly closed doors which no birds can enter.  There is little room for the swallow in modern farming.

The first barn swallows arrive in mid-April and like other swallows may be observed in concentrated numbers early in the season around ponds and lakes especially on cooler, overcast days when insects are more readily available from the water surface.

During courtship the male pursues the female in long graceful flights, upon landing they rub necks and heads, interlock bills and mutually preen one another. The breeding range is from Alaska through central and southern Canada and across the United States except the for southern Texas and southern Florida.  They are also present in Eurasia.  The migration of the Barn Swallows is one of the longest as they sometimes winter as far south as Argentina.   It is estimated that they may cover as much as 600 miles in a day.  Barn Swallows also show a strong fidelity to their breeding sites returning year after year to the same area.

The clutch consists of 4 to 6 brown-spotted, white eggs laid in a solid cup of mud reinforced with grass and lined with feathers or soft plant material.   As many as 1000 trips will be made over a period of 1 or 2 weeks as the bird forms little round mud balls which it carries to the nesting site in its bill.  The male which lacks a brood patch will help incubate the young which hatch in 14 to 17 days and fledge 18 to 23 days later.  After fledging the young will return to the nest for a few days and yearlings or immature birds from the first brood will often be seen around the second nest occasionally aiding their parent by feeding the nestlings.

Length 5 3/4 to 7 3/4 inches.