Why Most Birders Can't Tell Swifts & Swallows Apart and How You Can

What bird is faster than a speeding bullet, is more acrobatic than a fighter jet, and stays flying all day long without ever stopping? That's right, today we're talking about swifts and swallows and how to identify them. You know, it's a myth that they're impossible to identify. You just need to know these tips and tricks. And stay to the end because I got a secret tip that I've never shared with anybody. All right, let's watch. We're doing swifts and swallows. How to identify them. So in North America, there are four types of swifts. We're going to go through and eight types of swallows. And it depends really on where you live in North America, how many of these 12 species you're likely to encounter. So I lump them together because a lot of people think they're the same species of birds. Swifts and swallows, they're both relatively small. They're fast flying. They're agile. They maneuver. They are aerial insectivores. They're flying and catching bugs. And they look similar to the untrained eye. Here is a swift. Notice the long, long wings compared to the body and the short tail compared to a swallow, which has usually a swallow fan tail with wider wings. But we're going to get through each of these momentarily. So the first swift I'm going to look at is the chimney swift. This is really the only swift in the eastern part of the U.S. and Canada. So if you live in the east and you see something that looks like this, here's even a shadow of it, it's a chimney swift. Its nickname is the flying cigar. If you kind of ignore the wings and just look at the body shape where it's pinched at both ends, it looks like a big fat cigar or even a turd, a dog turd. It's a chimney swift. It gets its name because they live in chimneys. Chimneys are declining. As major big hospitals or big schools get renovated, chimneys get closed off. Now they're furnaces with high efficiency gas. You don't need these giant furnaces. That's where these birds roost. They roost together. You might have seen on videos hundreds or even thousands of these swifts swirling and swirling and entering a giant chimney. And they do that because they can't perch. They don't have the legs and the feet like a normal bird to stand upright. They have to cling to a wall like a bat would. But they're not upside down. Some people think they're even bats, but they're not. They cling to a wall, which a chimney provides. And they don't make a mess. So if you do have access to a giant chimney, it might help to take off the top during swift season and let them use your chimney. But what you'll notice, we have chimney swifts in our town. They're constantly in flight. They're all day. Once they leave their roost in the morning at sunlight, they don't stop. They don't stop at all until they're done for the night at dusk. So anytime they're eating, it's on the wing. Anytime they're taking a bath, it's on the wing. They will swoop down to a puddle and get wet and then fly up and shake as they're going up. So everything is in flight. Whereas swallows, not so much. Swallows you'll see perched all the time. But swifts, they're always flying. In our town, you can hear their chatter in the summertime. And they're pretty high up, and there's a lot of them. So at any one time in our town, you can look up and see 10 or 12 chimney swifts flying back and forth. And that high-pitched chatter is evidence of a chimney swift. But out west, you don't have a chimney swift. You have the vox's swift. It's a little smaller, and their habitat doesn't overlap. So out west, it's a vox. Out east, it's a chimney. And they're also called a cigar swift. So the same cigar shape, that pinched end, fat body, long wings. And they are known to have enormous roosts of up to 35,000 birds at once. There's a famous elementary school in Oregon called Chapman Elementary, where they have cameras and they have swift watchers. And they're counting all the birds each night as they go into their roost. And they're usually in the fall, end of August, September, October, they're there. And you can even see hawks that will... The hawks know that the vox's swifts are there. And so they just either sit on top of the chimney or in trees nearby. And they try to whack the swifts as they're going to bed at night. It's amazing to watch, but also a little sad. So these are dark, dark swifts. And the next swift out west is the white-throated swift. So it's also a western bird. It's got that distinct swift wing shape. But it's the only swift that has white on it in North America. So if you see a white part on a swift, it's a white-throated. So that's an easy one to distinguish. Not going to spend much time on that one. And then the hardest one to see in North America or in the U.S. is the black swift. That's an amazing bird. So they are bigger than the vox's. But they're kind of the same coloration, but they're bigger. But what you'll notice on here is the square blunt end to the tail. It's not a cigar. Basically, it's a square blunt. And you can see that on the silhouette. You can't see it when it spreads out its fantail, which it doesn't do that often. That's just a beautiful photograph. But what's neat about these guys is they nest behind waterfalls and on cliffs. So if you know a great waterfall in the Pacific Northwest, go see if there's black swifts behind it. It's a not very common bird, but it's beautiful. And I had to include it because it's so unique. All right, that's it for the swifts. And now we're on to swallows. And here I started with the most common and widespread swallow, the barn swallow. It's got that beautiful forked tail. And the way I remember it is it's a forked tail. And the pitchfork belongs in the barn. So if you see that pitchfork on the end, it's a barn swallow. Notice kind of the two-toned head, orange below and blue on top. And you see these white dots on the tail. You don't see it that often. They have to be in the right sunlight and then the right angle. But these are beautiful. The way to tell a male from a female on the barn swallow is these long streamers. The female won't be as long as the male. So if you have them, normally if there's one barn swallow, there's four or five that you're seeing. And you can compare those streamers to see the female. Next is tree swallow. You can tell easily the male and female here. The glossy blue is the male. And the kind of the duller brown is the female. And tree swallows, they're also all over North America from the west to the east. And they'll nest in bluebird boxes or swallow boxes. So if you have these on your property or in your town, look for tree swallows. I've had them nested in my backyard. I had a bluebird box where it went bluebirds to swallows back to bluebirds. Every few months, it seemed like they were taking turns raising their babies in our bluebird boxes. When I see tree swallows, it's normally like this, perched on a, this is a barbed wire fence or a telephone wire. And that iridescent blue is easy if the sunlight's hitting it. And they nest, so I remember trees, tree swallow because they nest in trees or in boxes. They'll also nest in holes like a woodpecker hole. They'll nest in that. So tree swallows widespread. Now, remember this picture here of the female here. It's got a little bit of a light brown wash on its chest. Now, that's important to notice that because we're going to look at bank swallows here in a second. And you want to be able to compare a bank swallow to a female tree swallow. So here it's a very light, faint brown wash on the female or immature male there. So out west, your version of the prettier tree swallow is the violet green swallow. Its description of its name matches the bird. So here's the male, that beautiful purple and green, unmistakable. And it's got that white cheek and rump patch, which is unique to this swallow. It's a western bird. We wish we had him out east. And the bank swallow. All right. So here I mentioned the bank swallow. What a beautiful bird. So they build their nests in sandbanks. And there are colony nesters. So where there's one, there's a bunch and they're all nesting together. And here, the bank swallow has a very distinct band around its neck. So you can see it here when it's flying or here when it's perched. So it's the only brown swallow with a dark brown band around its neck. So the way I remember it is not only does it build its nest in the sandbanks, so bank for that, sandbanks, but also that band around its neck is, in my mind, it's like the rubber band around your banknotes. So if you see that rubber band, it's a bank. Take that money to the bank. That's the way I remember it. Look for that band around its neck, like the rubber band around your dollar bills. Here, the next two are difficult to tell apart. So let's pay attention here. First is a cliff swallow, which is more common than the swallow that's going to come next. Cliff swallow builds its nests under bridges, under eaves, under cliffs. Look at this nest here. So this is all mud that it's collected. And watching them build their nest is amazing. So you'll see them swoop down to a mud puddle and get a mouthful of mud. And they'll fly back to where they're building their nest. And it'll take them thousands and thousands of trips, one little mud drip at a time to build this. And then all you see is a cute little head poking out when the nest is done. And when there's babies in the nest, you'll see four or five heads poking out. And you'll see this little light forehead patch. That's a cliff swallow. That forehead patch sticking out of the hole. And that light orange rump. All right. See, but you'll see, like, it's kind of almost got a barn swallow head, right? That two-toned head. But that forehead patch and that light orange patch are ones to remember. All right. So under eaves, under bridges at our bird observatory, they build their nests under a lighthouse. And it's a colony. So there's, at least in my county, there's 16, 18, 20 cliff swallows all at once building a nest in the same area. Okay. So the cliff swallow is very similar to a cave swallow, which is next. That cave swallow also has a forehead patch. It's kind of got that two-toned head and that light orange rump. So at first glance, they're similar. How are we going to tell them apart? And they build a similar nest. So these are not common. All right. These cave swallows are not common at all in the US or Canada. They're local. And they do live in caves, like mammoth caves, national parks, and then in Texas. But what they do is they show up as a rare visitor in the east. And it's usually once all the other swallows have left in the fall. So we'll get a cave swallow or two up in Ontario, you know, late in October or November. When all the other migrants have left, we'll have one that's just kind of exploring the area. And it's a rare bird. And everyone goes and tries to find it. Now, the way to tell the difference is it's similar to the cliff swallow, but has a much paler face, right? It's very light. The way I remember it is it's been stuck in a cave so long that it comes out almost white. It's got leprosy. It's a cliff swallow with leprosy because it's been in a cave. No sunlight. And then if you happen to see their nest, it's kind of like an open bowl at the top where that cliff swallow is just a teeny little hole opening. This is more of an open bowl where the birds fly in and out of. So I'm going to do a side-by-side comparison here of cliff and cave. Here, cliff on the left, cave on the right. And you can see that dark chin on the cliff swallow and that light chin on the cave. All right. This one's been stuck in a cave so long it's lost its coloration. And the tail, the cliff tail is lighter than the cave tail. All right. So that forehead patch, remember we said we're looking for that when it's poking its head out of the hole. Yeah, it's much darker on the cave swallow. So there's your side-by-side comparisons. And two swallows left. One is the northern rough-winged swallow. So this is common all across North America. Now, it's plain ground, whether it's male or female. And it can get overlooked if it's flying with a bunch of bank swallows. But how do you tell the difference between a bank swallow? Yeah. Remember that that bank has that ring around its neck or that band. This one doesn't. And then, well, what about a tree swallow? It's very similar to the female tree swallow. It is, but it doesn't have that two-toned head, that white below and brown above of a tree swallow. The other thing to know about rough-winged swallows is they're not colony breeders. So they're only in pairs, maybe a few pairs altogether, but never more than 20 rough-winged swallows at a time. So if you see hundreds, it's not a rough-winged swallow. And they feed differently, too. They're normally over water, flying really low to the water, scooping up insects. Whereas tree swallows are over fields and bank swallows, they're all over water as well. But they're a colony breeder. So look for these even to be mixed in with a flock of bank swallows. But look for that band around its neck. It gets its name, the rough-winged swallow, by if you ever are working at a banding lab and you can feel their wings, they have a serrated edge on the outer wings, which gets its name. But you wouldn't notice it just with your binoculars. And then the last swallow is purple martin, which is by far the biggest of the swallows in North America. And it's common. And you'll see these martin houses as you're driving through the country. You're like, what are those giant bird houses? That's for martins. That's for purple martins. They're a colony breeder. That means they like to be together as they're breeding. And they're actually known to seek out these white houses. For you, if you're trying to attract martins to your house, put up a white house. They call these condominiums. And yes, they call you a landlord if you're putting one of these in your backyard. They also hang gourds that are hollowed out empty with a hole for martins to nest in. Now, be warned, this house also attracts starlings, which love these homes. So there's a certain diameter size hole that martins will fit in, but starlings won't because starlings are a little bigger. Researchers have found that you can paint the top and the landings any color you want, but make sure the majority of the house is white, because the martins have learned that the white house equals a place for them. And if you're cleaning out your martin house, do it over the winter and have it open and ready to go by March or so. And they want to be high up. So don't put this five feet off the ground. Put it at least 10 feet off the ground. So you need a long pole. And they want to be away from buildings and away from trees where predators can be. So at least 30 feet away from any house or tree and up to 120 feet away. No further. Because they also like being around people. For centuries, martins have associated themselves with people. So that's why they want their condo next to your house or barn or activity, but not too close to trees where a predator could be. All right, that's a pretty cool roundup of swallows and swifts of North America. All right, go see if you can find some. Thanks. Thanks for watching. I hope you can identify the next flying cigar that flies over your head. Oh, and that extra bird fact. Did you know purple martins are linked in Roman mythology to the goddess of love Aphrodite? So you'll be lucky in love if you've got purple martins nesting in your backyard. All right, until next time, I hope you'll be like me and always birding.