The Northern Rough-winged Swallow is the plainest of Michigan's swallows, a nondescript brown bird above and dull whitish below, with a dingy, smudgy throat and no clean breast band. That very plainness is the key to identifying it: unlike the similar Bank Swallow it lacks a crisp brown chest band, and its slower, more languid, floppy flight over the water differs from the quick, fluttery beats of its relatives. Its name comes from tiny hooked barbs on the outer wing feathers, felt only in the hand.
Rather than nesting in dense colonies like Bank and Cliff Swallows, Northern Rough-winged Swallows nest singly or in small, loose groups, using burrows in stream banks, and readily adopting drainpipes, culverts, crevices in walls, and other cavities near water. They forage low over rivers, streams, and lakeshores, catching flying insects on the wing. Widespread but never abundant, they breed across Michigan near water and slip south by early fall for the tropics.
An aerial insectivore that catches flying insects on the wing, foraging low over rivers, streams, ponds, and lakeshores. It takes a variety of small flying insects and, more than some swallows, will glean prey close to the water's surface.
The Northern Rough-winged Swallow is plain brown above with a dingy, smudgy throat and no clean breast band, and it flies with slower, floppier wingbeats. The Bank Swallow is smaller and cleaner, with a sharply defined brown band across a white chest.
Tiny hook-like barbs on the edge of the outermost wing feathers give the wing a rough feel when handled. The feature is not visible in the field and can only be detected in the hand.
Usually singly or in small loose groups rather than large colonies, in burrows in stream banks and in cavities like drainpipes, culverts, and wall crevices near water — quite different from the dense colonies of Bank and Cliff Swallows.
Not really — they are the loners among our swallows, nesting singly or in twos in a bank crevice or drainpipe, often on the edge of a Bank Swallow colony without joining it.
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