Drive across nearly any bridge in the summer, and you may drive through
a multitude of small agile birds above the bridge. It’s as if
some great hand tossed a handful of flowers up in the air that
transformed into fluttering birds. This large number of small birds
fills the air above the bridge with shifting angled wings, and can
make driving across a bridge seem a rude intrusion.
To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln,* “God must have loved Cliff
Swallows, or he wouldn’t have made so many of them.” These birds are
often found in staggering numbers, scooping insects out of the air
at a somewhat higher altitude than their Barn Swallow cousins. They
occupy the summer air above roadways and bridges all across North
America, flying altogether in a nimble throng. The swallows named
Cliff are five inches long with rounded wings and short square
tails. From below the wings are ashy gray; above, the gray darkens
into luminous navy while the breast and belly are the color of
cream. Two pale details are worth remembering: a pale line around
the back of the neck, and a pale buffy rump. These you can actually
see when the birds fly by. You would need to freeze them in mid-air
to see those brick-red cheeks, charcoal throat, and the navy caps on
their heads.
The best way to know a bird is a Cliff Swallow is to find it
somewhere near the nest, for a Cliff Swallow nest is unmistakable.
These are mud bottle nests, bulging jug-like, upside-down
igloos made of mud. And like an igloo, each has an entrance tunnel
with a hole on the end.
In a perfect world, Cliff Swallow nests would be found on
cliffs, but when actual cliffs are not available, an eave, a
carport, or a
highway bridge will do. Find your way under many a bridge in North
America, and you’ll discover a Cliff Swallow village, row upon row
of fanciful mud huts, piled one atop the other in a big, cozy
jumble.
Cliff Swallows are intensely colonial — some colonies harbor
thousands of resident birds. And they don’t just nest together,
they build, feed, fly, and baby-sit each
other’s young together, too. They have an uncanny ability to recognize their own nest out of
all the others, and their own near-identical young once the birds
have fledged.
Colonial life has its ups and downs. A thriving Swallow colony
offers plenty of water, food, and of course, a source of mud. Cliff
Swallows seem to enjoy each other fully as much as God does, and
that giddy, collective chattering allows the birds to share
information about sources and locations of food.
The perils of a colonial lifestyle include infestations of lice
or other plagues that spread too easily in the crowded village. And
predators like snakes can move along from nest to nest with
devastating results.
Yet all in all this lifestyle serves Cliff Swallows well.
They thrive in close company, and seem to prefer the inconveniences
of the colony to the uncertainty of going it alone.
_____
*The actual Lincoln quote is,
"Common looking people
are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many
of them." Lincoln and the Civil War In the Diaries and Letters of
John Hay selected by Tyler Dennett (Da Capo Press, New York,
1988).
I
learned about Cliff Swallows at Birds of America Online, and
in the Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior, by David Allen
Sibley, published by Alfred A. Knopf.
