WHAT ARE SWALLOW CHARACTERISTICS?
Martins, mud swallows, cliff swallows and barn swallows are all nicknames for the swallow. Swallows are slender, sleek birds with either deeply forked tails or square tails, and they are very colorful, with colors ranging from orange-brown, steel blue, rust and white. Swallows are anywhere from five to eight inches long. Swallows are a migratory bird and so are protected by federal and state law. It is illegal to kill or hurt swallows in any way. Swallows build nests on bridges, houses or businesses of mud and directly attach them under an eave or overhang or on a beam, window jamb or corner. Swallow nests are gourd-shaped or cup-shaped with an entrance tunnel that opens downward. Swallows mix sand, grasses, hair and feathers in with the mud to build the swallow nest. Nests can be built in colonies of several hundred pairs, all lined up in a vertical cluster. WHAT DO SWALLOWS EAT? Swallows, no matter the type, are insect eaters. About 6,000 flies a day is the diet that a flock of swall
