Cliff Swallow, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota
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![]() The buff rump patch of the adult Cliff Swallow is the familiar field mark that makes it easy to identify the species in flight. For the photo above, I carefully planned to capture the exact moment when the bird's wingtip touched the water. (Or maybe not.) |
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![]() An adult Cliff Swallow, above; below, a juvenile, showing the edges of its yellow gape. |
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![]() A Cliff Swallow clinging to a rough surface, the posture in which they often have to build their nests. |
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![]() Above, an adult Cliff Swallow gathering clay to build a nest; a nest under construction is shown below. The nests can be fixed to cliffs, as the bird's common name suggests, but are often found on buildings. The most famous example is at the Mission of San Juan Capistrano in Southern California, to which, in a tradition immortalized in song, "the swallows come back" every spring; their return is celebrated on March 19, St. Joseph's Day. Cliff Swallows nest every spring in my area at both Palo Alto Baylands and Shoreline Park in Mountain View, as well as on the Stanford campus. |
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![]() Above, an adult Cliff Swallow building a nest. Below, other nests; more often than not, a crevice with a floor like the nest site above is not available, and the nests are built to hang from the junction of a vertical and overhead horizontal surfaces. |
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![]() Above, a nestling begging for food from the portal of its mud nest; below, an adult feeding a nestling. |
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![]() This rare albino Cliff Swallow was flocking with normally plumaged birds of the species in Sierra Valley, far eastern California. The picture was used as an illustration in an article in Birding magazine on forms of pigment deficiency in bird feathers. |