Tree Swallow babies June 2012

Tree Swallow courting pair

Tree Swallow courting pair

The tree swallows arrived a few days early this spring, we were thrilled to see! We saw them for the first time this year on April 30 swooping around the yard calling to each other trying to find a mate.
A pair of swallows quickly chose the birdhouse which has the nest camera in it. It is situated not far from the kitchen door and the breakfast nook window. The swallows sat on top of it and claimed it as theirs. A pair of sparrows had already started building a nest there a few days earlier, and soon a fight ensued. The swallows came out victorious and the sparrows found themselves other accommodations.

 It was wonderful to wake up every morning to the sound of the male swallows singing to attract their mates. Many of the other birdhouses on our property were quickly snapped up by other swallows, sparrows, or house wrens and it was interesting to see the birds zigzagging around the yard picking up dried grass stems, twigs and feathers.

I had just clipped the 5 foot tall stems of last years Karl Forrester grass (calamagrostis) and it was still lying in a heap on the lawn waiting for me to take it to the compost. It became very popular with all the nest builders!  At one point I saw a small bird trying to fly with a very long grass stem in its mouth which I knew would never fit through the hole of a birdhouse. :)

Swallow male and female have selected a nesting site

The swallow pair soon started building a nest inside this birdhouse in the back yard with dry grasses and the coveted white feathers.
This pair truly outdid themselves this year! They laid 7 eggs and all 7 babies hatched successfully and fledged successfully! Mama and Papa Swallows were kept very busy feeding their brood and did a wonderful job of raising their family. :)

Female Swallow has completed her nest with some help from her mate.

The first egg was laid on May 23rd

2 eggs on May 24th

The mating and nest building takes about 3 weeks and Mama finally laid her first egg on May 23, then proceeded to lay one more egg each day until she had a total of 7 eggs on May 29th.  She started sitting on the eggs day and night once she had laid 3 eggs.  She seldom left the nest for very long while she was brooding unless the male came to relieve her and watch the eggs so she could go out and catch herself some insects. (Papa only sits near the eggs when its his turn, not on them like mama does. ) 

Papa checking out the 3 eggs- May 25/ 2012

4 eggs May 26

Proud Papa


When female swallows start brooding, they pluck their white breast feathers to line the nest, leaving a bare patch on their bellies called a brooding patch. They keep the eggs warm with this skin contact.

5 eggs May 27th

7 eggs by May 29th! :)

 The first babies started hatching about 2 weeks later on June 11th!

First baby is starting to hatch out. Proud parent looks on. :)

One egg remains unhatched

Proud parent checking the babies

6 helpless, scrawny little hatchling tree swallows

June 12, 2012 1 day old baby tree swallows in their nest

The last egg finally did hatch on either June 12 or 13th

The 7th egg finally did hatch sometime later likely June 12, but we did not know this for several days. We could see that the egg was gone, but the nest camera did not show all 7 youngsters for over a week. They were very hard to differentiate at first. 

8 day old baby swallows

It doesn't take long for the babies to grow and start to get feathers. Here they are already  8 days old.

The videos give such a good depiction of the feeding process in the nest, but unfortunately they dan't work on this blog for some reason....  Mama Swallow is the best feeder of the 2 parents. She usually brings a big mouthful of insects and feeds 2 or 3 babies at each go. Papa only brings enough to feed one baby at a time.

(It was also interesting to see that 3 of the young were quite a bit bigger than their siblings, yet they all usually leave the nest on the same day, regardless.)

At around 7 days of age the babies start to flex their wings and flap them rapidly to exercise their muscles in preparation for flight.

The swallow parents were very dedicated to their family's safely as well. They seldom left the babies unattended for more than a few short minutes, usually taking turns sitting with their babies while the other parent went hunting. This ensures that no other birds will try and take over the nest location. (Last year we witnessed 2 nest takeover attempts by another swallow the day after the babies were hatched!)

Adult swallow on left feeds one baby then leaves. Babies are 14 days old

The swallow babies become curious about the outside world at about 2 weeks of age and they start to look out of the birdhouse hole to the big world outside.

June 29 the babies are 18 days old

The babies are ready to leave the nest after about 2 1/2 weeks of age. Other adult swallows seem to sense that the babies are getting ready to leave the nest.  On June 29, along with Mama and Papa, there were 8 or more swallows swooping around the birdhouse, sometimes clinging onto the side as the babies peeked out. They seemed to be giving them encouragement, flight demonstrations, or maybe a 'pep talk' to try to entice them to leave their nest. This went on for several days.

Once the first baby gets the courage to leave, the rest of them follow suit within a few hours after, usually one every hour or hour and a half. By the end of the day, the nest is empty; such a bitter sweet sight in the nest camera! The babies are gone, and there's nothing to see but a flattened, dirty pile of grasses and feathers.
But the knowledge that there are 7 new swallows are out in the world doing their part to eradicate insects is sweet.

Happy Trails, little ones!  :)