TREE SWALLOW (Of The Birds and The Bees)

This is a story of the magnificent Tree Swallow and its domestic life.

A Tree Swallow, Tachycineta bicolor, got its common name from its nesting preferences - it likes to place its grass-lined nest in a tree cavity or an old woodpecker hole.

Had The Happy Prince of the famous fairy tale met this hardy little swallow instead of the European one that, with the first sign of the upcoming winter, needed to fly to Egypt Oscar Wilde's story would have had a much happier ending. Our Tree Swallow would have been able to take a bit of a colder weather and it would not die. Fewer children would have to cry over the story's sad end (as I certainly did, over half a century ago).

The North American Tree Swallow is quite hardy and does not need to travel as far South as the other swallows do. So, when the winter comes to its end this handsome bi-colored bird is one of the first to return.

It is usually in March or April  when we notice the flocks of these fast flyers arriving to Southern British Columbia.





Tachycineta bicolor is bi-colored indeed. It is freshly-white underneath and metallic-blue on the males or beige-brown on females on the backs. Very elegant!

How do the the birds come to those amazingly shiny metallic feathers anyway? These questions are lately being answered by the ever-evolving science, leading us away from Biology and Chemistry of  Pigments to Biology and Physics, due to the arrangements of extremely tiny particles of the feather and their reaction to the environment.

As John Muir once famously said a Century ago:

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."

Another reason why Biology, Chemistry and Physics should all be compulsory in every High School in the world.

These birds are Tree Swallows by the name, but just like many other birds they will happily take up their residence in man-made nesting boxes. Smart!
Once they have arrived they do not waste much time before taking care of the business. Their job here is to bring up a family ( or rarely two if something goes wrong with the first clutch).

So, it is the real estate that they need to look up first.




He is the one who seems to look for a suitable site first. Then he invites her for a closer look.

              A big discussion follows:
              What do you think Honey?
              Up to your specifications?

             Hmmmm .... lets see what it is like inside!

She likes the site and indicates that by commencing to collect building material.
I would like to use this kind of grasses, please. oh ... and some loose feathers too, if available.

They flitter about, happy that the real estate issue has been settled. He tweets his heart out in series of happy notes. She joins him for a couple of seconds and what looks like a shouting match is actually an exchange of gentle chirps - the sign of things to come. It really lasts only a moment before they take off to catch some bugs.
Swallows are multitaskers; they feed in flight -with their beaks widely open, sucking in mosquitoes and such.
Sorry to spoil the fun with a scientific fact.

She returns to her perch and starts on her makeup - a VERY feminine thing. She fluffs up her feathers and twists her body this way and that. All done up she settles down, pretending that nothing special has been going on.

Honestly, I did not mean to pry!

I was just peacefully hiding in my blind, clicking away, thinking about the fact that the birds need to preen their feathers 75 percent of their time and about the importance of it. I clicked the shutter open in the very same second that this kamikaze appeared out out of nowhere. One short second to join the plumbings and the most important task of the season was done!
Tricked me, if you happen to wonder!

My university years are well in the past. But I still remember my zoology prof talking about the bird reproductive strategies and how they pass and accept the reproductive cells. Cloaca was the word - an opening that, like the Jack of All Trades, serves the reproductive, urinary and elimination purposes in one. Call me dirty, but ever since that lecture I always wondered how on Earth can birds do it with their long tails and layered feathers covering the whole works. Fifty years later I got my answer!

What a speed! Split of a second, an amazingly precise balancing act ....and - over. 

Was it worth all the fluffing and twittering?

You bet!

And the bees? How about some other time?