The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Barn Swallow

(Hirundo rustica), a bird of the order Pas-seriformes. The upper part of the body and a stripe on the breast are black with a blue sheen, the head and throat are reddish chestnut, and the abdomen is white or rust colored. The body measures 18-23 cm long. The tail feathers are in the form of thin, narrow sickles. The barn swallow is distributed in Europe, North Africa, Asia, and North America. In the USSR it is found everywhere south of the forest tundra. A migratory bird, it nests in structures near human habitation. The nest is cup-shaped and made of clumps of dirt mixed with saliva; it is fastened beneath eaves. There are two clutches per summer. The barn swallow is beneficial by destroying flies and other flying insects.

REFERENCE

Ptitsy Sovetskogo Soiuza, vol. 6. Edited by G. P. Dement’ev and N. A.Gladkov. Moscow, 1954.

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

From 6-8 June 2016, we observed a banded female Barn Swallow laying three consecutive eggs in a nest.

Overlooked Costs of Coloniality: Mislaid Eggs and the Double Incubation of Separate Nests

The incidence of American swallow bugs (Oeciacus vicarious) in barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) colonies in northeast Texas.

Reproductive success of syntopic nesting barn swallows and cave swallows in northeastern Texas

Almost exclusively insectivores, barn swallows are dynamic aerial feeders.

Grace on the wing: attract the beautiful barn swallow around your home for entertainment and insect control

Figure 3 shows the distribution estimates for Barn Swallow (top), Blackpoll Warbler (middle), and Black-throated Blue Warbler (bottom) on June 28 (left), October 11 (center), and December 20 (right).

Crowdsourcing meets ecology: hemispherewide spatiotemporal species distribution models

A test of nest cup volume and reproductive success in the barn swallow. Jack-Pine Warbler, 60:107-112.

Breeding biology of the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) in northeast Texas with temporal and geographic comparisons to other North American studies

By focusing on the barn swallows, toads, tarantulas, and thistles, Lamberton found a way to connect with his girls and indulge his lost love of teaching.

Law and nature's order: how swallows and saguaros gave a prisoner his freedom. (Profile)

Also, the fact that certain avian species, such as Eurasian Blackbirds, Great Gray Owls, and Barn Swallows in Austria, are especially vulnerable to USUV infection, is reminiscent of the observation that WNV in North America has primarily affected American Crows and Blue Jays (19,20).

Emergence of Usutu virus, an african mosquito-borne flavivirus of the Japanese encephalitis virus group, Central Europe. (Research)

Sexual Selection in the Barn Swallow. New York: Oxford University Press.

The Myth Of Monogamy: Fidelity And Infidelity In Animals And People. (Book Reviews)

We tested for relationships in the lower bounds of published scatter plots of asymmetry and trait size in data from six studies, including barn swallows (Moller 1990, 1992b), earwigs (Radesater and Halldorsdottir 1993), peacocks (Manning and Hartley 1991), and flower petals (Moller and Eriksson 1994; Moller 1995).

Size-dependent asymmetry: fluctuating asymmetry versus antisymmetry and its relevance to condition-dependent signaling

Among these species, more than 200 barn swallows were seen in the area, based on the latest count of local environment personnel.

More bird species seen in Pangasinan wetlands

Children can monitor their neighbourhoods and note how many swallows and nests they see, adopt a nest without disturbing them, note the key dates of arrival, egg-laying, hatching and fledgings, stop people from destroying swallow nests, even if their droppings make a mess, help put up a board to catch the droppings instead, learn the difference between Barn Swallows and House Martins and the best ways to look after each species.

'Spring Alive' campaign focuses on migratory swallows

As far as the female North American barn swallow is concerned, a red breast is best.

Females want looks over personality, says study