Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

BirdMigratoryAerial Insectivore

Overview

The barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) is the most widespread swallow in the world, breeding across North America, Europe, Asia and North Africa and wintering across the southern hemisphere. Few songbirds are so closely tied to human buildings.

It is built entirely for flight: long pointed wings, a deeply forked tail with long outer streamers, and a wide gape for catching insects on the wing. The upperparts are glossy blue-black, the throat and forehead rufous.

Barn swallows are among the most familiar long-distance migrants in the world, and their arrival is treated as a marker of spring across much of the northern hemisphere.

Habitat & Range

Barn swallows breed in open and semi-open country — farmland, meadows, pasture, marsh edges and around villages and towns — almost always near structures they can nest on and open water or damp ground that supplies mud and insects. They have become so associated with human buildings that natural nest sites such as caves and cliff ledges are now rarely used across much of the range.

Diet

Barn swallows are aerial insectivores, catching flying insects in flight: flies, midges, beetles, aphids, flying ants, grasshoppers and moths. They hunt low over fields, water and livestock, often following grazing animals or farm machinery that flush insects into the air, and they drink by skimming the surface of water in flight.

Behavior

The nest is a cup of mud pellets mixed with plant fibre, built up on a ledge, beam or wall inside or on a barn, bridge, porch or culvert, and lined with feathers. Both parents build it and feed the young, and pairs frequently raise more than one brood in a season. Outside breeding, barn swallows gather in large roosting flocks, often in reedbeds, before and during migration.

Human Interaction & Conservation

Few wild birds live so closely alongside people. Barn swallows nest almost exclusively on human structures across much of the range, which makes them vulnerable to changes in farm buildings — sealed barns, converted outbuildings and fewer livestock all reduce nest sites and insect prey. Broader declines in flying-insect abundance and pressures along migration routes are also implicated in regional declines. This profile offers no guidance on handling birds or nests, which are legally protected in many countries. Verify current status at the IUCN Red List.