Species: Tachycineta bicolor

Tree Swallow

Species

Birds

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Terrestrial vertebrates: birds

Encyclopedia of Puget Sound

Classification

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Craniata

Class

Aves

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Hirundinidae

Genus

Tachycineta

NatureServe

Source:
ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.101167

Classification

Other Global Common Names

Golondrina Bicolor - hirondelle bicolore

Informal Taxonomy

Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Perching Birds

Formal Taxonomy

Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Passeriformes - Hirundinidae - Tachycineta - Sometimes placed in the genus IRIDOPROCNE (AOU 1983). 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 - Main migration routes include U.S. east coast, Mississippi Basin, along Rockies (see Turner and Rose 1989). Migrates northward early, February-March in most of U.S. (Terres 1980). Large numbers of south-bound migrants pass through Florida in late fall, beginning in late September or October (Smith and Smith 1990). Irregularly rare to locally common migrant in Costa Rica, early September-late October and March-April (Stiles and Skutch 1989).

Non-migrant

false

Locally Migrant

false

Food Comments

Catches flying insects in the air over land or water. Also forages on the ground for beetles, bugs, beach "fleas", and spiders. Occasionally eats some seeds and fruits (e.g., MYRICA fruits during inclement weather when insects unavailable, especially in fall in the eastern coastal U.S.) (Place and Stiles 1992).

Reproduction Comments

Egg dates: late April-late June in south, early May to mid-June in north. Clutch size usually is 4-6. Incubation, typically by fenale, lasts 13-16 days. Altricial young are tended by both sexes, leave nest 16-24 days after hatching (Terres 1980), receive little care after that. Inclement weather and resulting scarcity of food may result in high nestling mortality in some years. In Ontario, productivity was reduced near experimentally acidified lakes (St. Louis and Barlow, 1993, Can. J. Zool. 71:1090-1097). Generally monogamous, but sometimes polygynous if food is superabundant. Nests alone or in loose colony.

Ecology Comments

Many may congregate where food abundant or in roosts when weather cold. When not breeding, flocks may contain 1000s of individuals.

Length

Weight

Conservation Status

NatureServe Global Status Rank

Global Status Last Reviewed

1996-12-02

Global Status Last Changed

1996-12-02

Other Status

LC - Least concern

Distribution

Conservation Status Map

Global Range

BREEDS: western Alaska to Newfoundland, south to southern California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, northeastern Louisiana, western Mississippi, Tennessee and North Carolina, casually to southern states. Range has expanded in southeastern U.S. in recent decades, perhaps facilitated by land clearing, impoundments, beaver reintroduction, and use of bluebird nest boxes (Lee 1993). WINTERS: primarily from southern California and extreme southern U.S. through Mexico to Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, sporatically to Panama; Bahamas and Greater Antilles (Puerto Rico: rare), rarely to northern South America (Ridgely and Tudor 1989).

ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.101167