Barn Swallow
Tree SwallowsContrast this with our experiences of Tree Swallows, who we see wintering and migrating in impressively large flocks, sometimes numbering in the thousands. Perhaps this difference in migration strategies has to do with these different swallow species food sources. In winter, Tree Swallows eat insects but especially Bayberries, and in the south, Wax Myrtle berries. The advantage of traveling in a large flock is that you have many eyes to search for the erratically located berry bushes. We have seen Tree Swallows in FL find a patch of Wax Myrtle and descend like a cloud, then gobble 'til the berries are depleted. During breeding, Tree Swallows eat insects, just like Barn Swallows.
2 comments:
Hi
During October and November here along the Georgia coast, it is a wonderful sight to behold thousand of Tree Swallow swarming around. Just like your photograph. But in August when it is way too hot Barn Swallow make me forget the heat. For hundreds fly by at eye level and I put my hand out by my sides and I can feel them going by. AWESOME is all I can say. Then there are the Banks that will get here in the hundreds as well. Swallows just inspire me.
Thanks for the blog.
Lydia
Great pictures! I remember last year, I was down in the NW part of FL and came across a flock of Tree swallows... a huge flock of Tree Swallows. The best way to describe the size of the flock would be: Take your TRSW picture and multiply it by 50 in both directions and by 30 deep and 30 high. Then fill the space almost completely with birds. That's how many swallows there were in the sky that evening in FL last year. They were as far as the eye could see in both directions up and down the shoreline and stretched well out over the bay.
I estimated around a million and a half or more.
--Chris W, The SW WI birder.
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