# Swallow information



## Sterling (Jun 17, 2007)

We have gone many years without having a single Swallow in our barn and this year we are lucky enough to have a family of Swallows grace us with their presence. They are such neat little birds to watch fly in and about and acrobatic to boot! I was very sad however this afternoon to see that a baby bird had fallen out of it's nest. They are still very young...altho he has feathers, they seem to be in the pin feather stage and I noticed when momma and pappa come in for feedings, they are very quiet and don't peep at all. Hubby got his ladder and I scooped up a bunch of hay in my hands to pick him up in it instead of using my bare hands in case momma would decide to abandon him. Hubby also used the hay thing to put him back in the nest. However later on this evening when hubby went out to the barn again, the baby was again on the barn floor. It's a looong fall from the nest to the wooden floor...and hubby put him back in the nest. When I went out later on, I did'nt see him out again, but my question is this....... Do Swallows usually throw their kids out of the nest? Is this little one constantly just falling out, just because or.......? I don't know how many more times he's going to survive falling out of that nest. Hubby also mentioned that he did'nt see any other babies up in the nest...but that could have been that they were just hunkered down. Come to think of it...I only saw one egg shell underneath the nest a while ago when they/it first hatched out.

I am just curious. I'd hate to go out there tomorrow morning and find him on the barn floor dead...poor sweet little tyke. Or should he fall out tonight, the roaming cats may take to him....


----------



## Bess Kelly (Jun 17, 2007)

Can't answer the question........but, while I normally have 7-8 pairs, this yr only 3 pairs returned. They did lay and hatch and the least I saw was 4 in a nest. The other two had 5 each. :new_shocked:

So, one egg seems pretty unusual.

Mine have all gone on to flight stage and I had to rescue one from my cat last week. Little rascal landed to rest and the cat pounced!




: Luckily, I saw the adults dive bombing and the cat was under them!

I ran over and, luckily, when the cat let it out of her mouth, it flew away



:

Pretty little birds but, messy.


----------



## liltnt (Jun 17, 2007)

Could they be newly weads and not really ready for a family yet? Maybe you could put a pile of straw under the nest where he lands to cushion his fall


----------



## laughingllama75 (Jun 17, 2007)

Sad to say, but Mom is probably booting it out of the nest because their is a problem with it. That's Mother Nature's way of taking care of things.





I hope that the swallows continue to nest for you, I got my first pair this year and I was so excited, Hubby thought I lost it!

Alicia


----------



## Chico (Jun 17, 2007)

We get swallows in our barn. Last year, one by one, we found baby swallows on our floor. We tried everything to save the remaing birds from falling out. Nothing worked until we had just one left. The kids were very upset. :no: We watched carefully and finally decided one of the baby birds was the culprit. I hope things work out at your house!

chico


----------



## RainSong (Jun 18, 2007)

Chico said:


> We get swallows in our barn. Last year, one by one, we found baby swallows on our floor. We tried everything to save the remaing birds from falling out. Nothing worked until we had just one left. The kids were very upset. :no: We watched carefully and finally decided one of the baby birds was the culprit. I hope things work out at your house!
> 
> chico


Some birds will lay eggs in other bird's nests, and the intruder bird will then out-eat it's false siblings, or even kick them out





There's at least one invasive specie I've been told does this.

We had swallows A LOT in the trailer park. Here we have a beautiful native little bird- green something swallow (I can't recall now) that's getting rarer. They keep trying to next in the vents under the eves!! I told my mother we should make bird houses and stick them up there for them.


----------



## Minimor (Jun 18, 2007)

We've had many swallows grow up in our barns & sheds over the years, and I've noticed that baby swallows tend to be incredibly stupid about falling out of their nests! Sometimes they'll stay in just fine, then the next batch won't stay in there for anything. And, once they fall out once, they keep on doing it. They sometimes get up on the edge of the nest & then topple off, or they push each other out of the nest. Or, if they're older & just about ready to fly, they'll jump out only to find they cannot fly, and they hit the ground. Last year we had one nest in one shed; the one evening the birds were having a terrible time so I went to check. All the babies were out of the nest, huddled in a heap against the shed wall. I put them all back in the nest but next day they were all gone, nowhere to be found. I don't know if they discovered they could fly, or if they fell/jumped out of the nest & a cat found them, or if the magpies took them.


----------



## whiskeyranch (Jun 18, 2007)

Hubby and I discovered a nest of 6 baby swallows in our barn last week. The next night while feeding we decided to check on them, and all we saw was a GIANT BLACK SNAKE with lumps.

I was so furious, I insisted he knock down the snake and kill it!!

The next morning, our pair of swallows decided to build a new nest. UNDER OUR PORCH BY THE BACK DOOR!!! I suppose they decided we were good nest guards. Don't appreciate the mess, but who could possibly refuse them after all their parental dedication was ruined by a stupid snake! Plus I can look out my bedroom door all day long and watch them work. :aktion033:


----------



## MiniHoofBeats (Jun 18, 2007)

I have a friend down the street who has just tons of barn swallows, her shelter/barn has at least 8 nests in it. I was there last week and walked right in, barely missing stepping on a little baby swallow! I had my barn gloves on so I scooped it up and after taking another step I look down to see another one! The one in my hands was barely pinfeathered in, the next one was all feathered but couldn't fly yet. I looked around through the rest of the hay floor and found 4 more! I scooped them all up after wondering how mom and dad were going to find them in the hay, AND wondering how the nosey large dairy goats hadn't already stepped on them, put them in a tub with hay and placed them up on a ledge away from the nosey goats. I looked up to see all the nests had 1 or 2 feathered babies sitting up on the edges.

I am guessing with how small those nests are, if there's more than 2 babies, the stronger 2 who grow feathers first will push out the younger, less fed two to die. Survivial of the fittest, but how sad!!!


----------



## Sterling (Jun 18, 2007)

Thanks for your stories guys! Very interesting to know. We padded the wooden floor with much hay last night after the first time the baby fell out...thankfully this morning when I checked there was no baby on the floor, and I saw a head and white mouth peeking out of the nest, plus a little tail. It is so sad when you see these helpless little things on the floor just laying there!





whiskeyranch -- Oh I would have been fuming! Once a black rat snake came in and took some baby chicks I had...picked them right off their perch!


----------



## Bassett (Jun 18, 2007)

My swallow story is, one year they built a nest, right above the table and chairs we sat on, under the eaves. One by one they left the nest, except one.. He would sit on the edge of the nest and flap his wings furiously. Mom and Dad faithfully came and fed him but he never seemed to want to leave the nest. I can not believe the dedication of those two parents. One day I thought this is really strange. This bird was really getting big. I got a step ladder and climbed up there and the poor little thing had his toenail caught in a piece of string in the nest. I clipped it off and away he went just a swooping around and around. His parents actually came and swooped at us like they were saying THANKS. I'm sure they were getting fed up with this bird still in the nest , having to feed him all the time. So my story had a happy ending.



:


----------



## Sterling (Jun 18, 2007)

Awwww I LOVE that story Bonnie!!!



:


----------



## HGFarm (Jun 21, 2007)

Many times mama birds will dump the babies out if something is wrong with them or they know they are not going to make it. Their instincts just seem to know, and they will not allow the babies to stay. Sad, but I guess it is survival of the fittest.


----------

