Swallows & Martins
Birds that eat on the wing, catching insects in the air with a wide gape and a short bill, low over water in the evening. Their return in spring has been a marker of the season for as long as people have kept calendars, and one swallow, as the proverb says, does not make a summer.
The Purple Martin in the eastern United States has all but given up nesting in the wild. Over a couple of centuries it moved into the gourds and apartment boxes that people put up for it, first Native Americans and then everyone else, and today the eastern population depends on them almost entirely.
- Bank Swallow Riparia riparia
- Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica
- Purple Martin Progne subis
- Tree Swallow Tachycineta bicolor
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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