Tree Swallow Videos

House “U”

Could this be a lesson in, “You snooze – You loose!”? The chick seemed ready for lunch, but since it wasn’t available when Dad showed up, papa just took off. I wonder if this is a way for the parents to encourage their chicks to take the big plunge!

Several times in the past, I have observed other Tree Swallow parents performing a “fly by” the nest, without stopping in to feed. It’s always once the chicks are sticking out their heads and close to leaving the nest. In the next video you can see one of the parents flying by without stopping in, when another parent is at the nest hole.

This next video shows two parent birds feeding the chicks. Then, a third bird, that arrives without food, looks into the hole, curiously. On the day I filmed, I often saw this third bird flying around the area of the nest. Sometimes, a parent bird would flit upwards with that bird and even make contact as they fluttered together in the air. I did not see the parents trying to chase off that bird. I think it could be a juvenile from their first brood. In this video, you can see its shadow a couple times before it ends up landing on the nest.

Last, but not least, because poop duty is a thing and what goes in must come out, here’s a parent bird delivering a meal and cleaning up the aftermath. The poop sack is usually deposited some distance from the nest to avoid alerting predators that there are chicks nearby.