No Place Like Home is a photograph by Jon Burch Photography which was uploaded on April 11th, 2019.
No Place Like Home
The American Cliff Swallow averages 5 inches long with a tiny bill. The adult cliff swallow has an iridescent blue back and crown, brown wings and... more
Title
No Place Like Home
Artist
Jon Burch Photography
Medium
Photograph - Digital Capture & Enhancement
Description
The American Cliff Swallow averages 5 inches long with a tiny bill. The adult cliff swallow has an iridescent blue back and crown, brown wings and tail, and buff rump. The nape and forehead are white. The underparts are white except for a red face and the tail is square-ended.
Young birds are essentially brown above and whitish below, except for the buff rump and dark face. The only confusion species is the closely related cave swallow, which is richer in color and has a cinnamon rump and forehead. Like all swallows and martins, cliff swallows subsist primarily on a diet of insects which are caught in flight.
The birds breed in large colonies building conical mud nests and lay 3 to 6 eggs. The natural nest sites are on cliffs, preferably beneath overhangs, but as with the Eurasian house martin, man-made structures are now the principal locations for breeding. Female American cliff swallows are known to lay eggs in and move previously laid eggs into the nests of other birds within the colony.
This species has always been plentiful in the west of North America, where there are many natural sites, but the abundance in the east has varied. European settlement provided many new nest sites on buildings, but the population declined in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the supply of unpainted barns declined. There has been a subsequent revival as dams and bridges have provided suitable sites.
This photograph was made at "Register Cliffs" near Guernsey, Wyoming.
Image copyright 2019 Jon Burch Photography
Uploaded
April 11th, 2019
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