Bank Swallow (Riparia riparia)

County List:

Rule:

Mixed Forested/Nonforested or Nonforested Landscapes

1st alternative:
      Coastal Dunes
   adjacent to:
      Lake

2nd alternative:
      (Small Grains/Forage Crops or Fields/Pasture or Residential or Sedge Meadow)
   containing:
      Banks
   neighboring:
      (Lake or Pond or River)

Habitat List:

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Literature:

Habitat: Nesting of this highly colonial species is restricted to natural and artificial situations which result in the formation of vertical banks in sand and gravel substrates. Such banks for burrow excavation are found along streams and rivers, in commercial sand and gravel pits, and in road and railroad cuts. These situations tend to be transient and the abundance of Bank Swallows in a given locale and can change dramatically from year to year.

Records collected during the Atlas Habitat Survey indicate that foraging habitat typically consists of farmlands, grasslands, wetlands, and areas of open water near colonies. Bank Swallows tend to avoid both forested areas and those heavily populated by humans.

This species has always been locally distributed and was largely limited to riparian and dune habitats prior to European settlement. Human activities have doubtless provided more numerous and widely distributed nesting sites than existed historically.

Habitat: Breeding: Riverbanks, gravel pits, road cuts, hardened sawdust piles, and clay banks. Prefers areas with grassland or cultivated field at low elevations and near fresh water.

Special Habitat Requirements: Sand or clay banks that are stabilized by a grassy mat overhanging the top.

Habitat: Near water; fields, marshes, streams, lakes. Typically seen feeding in flight over (or near) water at all seasons, even in migration. Nests in colonies in vertical banks of dirt or sand, usually along rivers or ponds, seldom away from water.

Diet: Insects. Feeds on a wide variety of flying insects. Eats many flies (including house flies and crane flies), beetles, wasps, winged ants, small bees, and true bugs, plus some dragonflies, stoneflies, moths, caterpillars, and others. Feeds almost entirely in flight. Often forages in flocks and typically flies rather low, doing much feeding over water.

Nest: Almost always nests in colonies in vertical banks of sand or dirt; may be along riverbanks, lake shores, road cuts, gravel pits, or similar sites. Colonies are often dense with entrances to holes no more than a foot apart. Site is in burrow excavated in steep bank. Both sexes help dig burrow, beginning by clinging to bank and digging with bill, later crawling inside burrow and kicking out dirt with feet. Burrows usually 2-3 feet long, sometimes 1-5 feet long. Nest at end of horizontal burrow is made of grass, weeds, rootlets, with a lining of feathers added after eggs are laid.