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Martins nest in colonies, using man-made structures put up for them. Bam Swallows, also colony nesters, build their mud and feather-lined nests on buildings and in bams. Their territories are only in the immediate vicinity of the nest, oniy a foot or less. This they guard fiercely.
They feed over the fields, where they plunge and dive through the air with grace and speed. This feeding area may be as large as a square mile. What’s a five acre field to a bird of such swift flight? Rough-winged Swallows are the only members of the family to be solitary nesters. Apparently they do not require the close proximity of their own kind.
Swallows are not known for their vocal skills though I can not think of any sound so reassuring, so full of all-isright-with-the-world, than the liquid calls of Purple Martins early in the morning. For Bam Swallows, a series of twittering — almost conversationalnotes serve as a song. An intruder near a nesting colony is scolded, by what E.B. White in Charlotte’s Web interprets, as chee-ky, chee-ky. Impudent, in other words. 1 agree with Mr. White on that. All I have ever heard from Roughwinged Swallows is an unbird-like brrt.
Questions about the brown swallows of Flint Hill sent me to my books. The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds and Life
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