Bank Swallows carrying nesting material
Riparia riparia
Bank Swallow · Staten Island · 5 July 2026
Two Bank Swallows flying in with something pale in the bill, grass or feather, lining for a burrow rather than the burrow's structure, which the birds dig with their feet and bills directly into the sand. A nesting colony this active means the bank itself is close by, out of frame.
The colony is the whole life of the species. Bank Swallows do everything together, feeding, bathing, and mobbing anything that comes near the bank, and a single face can hold several hundred pairs.
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