Species: Riparia riparia
Bank Swallow
Species
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Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Craniata
Class
Aves
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Hirundinidae
Genus
Riparia
NatureServe
Classification
Other Global Common Names
Andorinha-do-Barranco - Golondrina Ribereña, Golondrina Zapadora - hirondelle de rivage
Informal Taxonomy
Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Perching Birds
Formal Taxonomy
Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Passeriformes - Hirundinidae - Riparia - See Sheldon and Winkler (1993) for information on intergeneric phylogenetic relationships of Hirundininae based on DNA-DNA hybridization.
Ecology and Life History
Migration
false - false - true - Most foraging flights are within 0.8 kilometers of colony (Stoner and Stoner 1941).
Non-migrant
false
Locally Migrant
false
Food Comments
Diet is mainly flying insects (e.g., beetles, mosquitoes, winged ants, flies, moths). Insects are caught in the air over fields, wetlands, water, etc. If necessary, individuals may forage up to several kilometers from the nesting area, but usually closer.
Reproduction Comments
Clutch size is 2-8 (usually 4-5). Incubation, by both sexes, lasts 12-16 days (Terres 1980). Young are tended by both sexes, leave nest when 18-22 days old, return to burrow for a few days after first flight, remain dependent on parents for about 5 days after fledging. Some birds have two broods per year in some areas (not in north). Most individuals live for only one or a few years.Colony size varies; largest colonies often are in artificial sites; colonies may reach at least several hundred pairs.
Ecology Comments
Bank swallows may form flocks of 100s or 1000s prior to fall migration.<br><br>Inclement weather and resulting scarcity of food may be important factors in nestling mortality in some years; erosion of nest sites and predators also sometimes destroy nests (Turner and Rose 1989).
Length
13
Weight
15
Conservation Status
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G5
Global Status Last Reviewed
2009-03-20
Global Status Last Changed
1996-12-02
Other Status
LC - Least concern
Distribution
Conservation Status Map
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Global Range
H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - Breeding range in North America extends from western and central Alaska eastward across Canada to the southern Hudson Bay region, Labrador, and Newfoundland, and south to central California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, northern Alabama, and North Carolina, and disjunctly to southern Texas and adjacent northeastern Mexico (northern Veracruz, northeastern San Luis Potosí, and extreme northern Coahuila) (Howell and Webb 1995, AOU 1998, Garrison 1999). In Eurasia, breeding extends from the Hebrides, Orkneys, northern Scandinavia, northern Russia, and Siberia south to the Mediterranean, Palestine, Iran, Afghanistan, northern India, southeastern China, and Japan (AOU 1998, Garrison 1999). Irregular breeding occurs south of these areas.<br><br>During the northern winter, the range in the Americas is mainly from eastern Panama southward, east of the Andes, to northern Argentina, Paraguay, and northern Chile, casually north to souithern California; also along Pacific slope of southern Mexico and in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands; and in the Old World from the Mediterranean, Near East, northern India, and eastern China south to eastern Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, southern India, Southeast Asia, Borneo, and the Philippines (AOU 1998, Garrison 1999). See Turner and Rose (1989) for further details.
Global Range Code
H
Global Range Description
>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)