The Cliff Swallow is a compact, square-tailed swallow best known for its remarkable architecture: it builds an enclosed, gourd-shaped nest of mud pellets, stuck to a vertical wall beneath an overhang, with a small entrance tunnel on the side. Hundreds of these mud jugs may be packed together in a dense colony under a bridge, culvert, dam, or barn eave. The bird itself is handsome in a subtle way, dark above with a rusty rump, a buffy collar and throat, and a pale forehead patch.
Originally a nester on natural cliffs and canyon walls, the Cliff Swallow expanded dramatically as human structures spread across the landscape, and today most Michigan colonies are on bridges, culverts, and farm buildings near open country and water. The birds forage in wheeling flocks over fields and water, catching insects on the wing, and are famous for the coordinated colonies — like the swallows of Capistrano — that return to the same sites year after year each spring.
Feeds entirely on flying insects caught on the wing, often foraging in large flocks high over open fields, water, and wetlands. It takes swarming insects such as flies, beetles, and winged ants, and colony members sometimes follow one another to newly found insect swarms.
The Cliff Swallow has a square tail, a rusty rump, and a pale forehead, and builds an enclosed mud jug nest. The Barn Swallow has a deeply forked tail, a dark rump, and a rusty throat, and builds an open cup nest.
Those gourd-shaped mud structures with a side entrance are Cliff Swallow nests, built pellet by pellet and packed together in colonies under bridges, culverts, dam faces, and barn eaves.
Yes — the swallows renowned for returning to Mission San Juan Capistrano are Cliff Swallows. They are known for coming back to traditional colony sites in spring, a trait shared by Michigan's colonies.
A colony. Cliff Swallows build gourd-shaped mud nests packed shoulder to shoulder under bridges and barn eaves, and a large colony may hold several hundred nests.
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