{"id":21060,"date":"2015-03-25T06:33:38","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T12:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=21060"},"modified":"2025-05-09T14:05:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T19:05:15","slug":"the-return-of-the-tree-swallows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/03\/25\/the-return-of-the-tree-swallows\/","title":{"rendered":"Return of the Tree Swallows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"StandStand of Tree Swallows at Bear River MBR<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week I spotted my first of the year Tree Swallows at the entrance to Antelope Island State Park and got excited by their return. Not only are Tree Swallows colorful and beautiful they are bug-zapping machines and keep the number of flying insects down. Anything that terrorizes mosquitoes is a hero in my book!\u00a0 And because of our warm winter and early spring I have been seeing mosquitoes for weeks.<\/p>\n

Tree Swallows eat all kinds of flying insects: midges, mosquitoes, dragonflies, damselflies, flies, mayflies, true bugs, sawflies, bees, ants, wasps, beetles, stoneflies, butterflies, moths, and spiders.<\/p>\n

During the breeding season they can also be seen eating high calcium foods like discarded egg shells, fish bones and the exoskeletons of crustaceans.<\/p>\n

\"TreeTree Swallow at a Red Rock Lakes NWR nest box<\/span><\/p>\n

Tree Swallows are cavity nesting birds and rely on other species such as woodpeckers and sapsuckers to create nesting cavities in trees<\/span><\/a> and they often take over the older cavities. They will also nest in man made nest boxes set up for them or take over the boxes set up for bluebirds.<\/p>\n

\"TwoTwo Tree Swallows fighting over a nest box at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

When I see large stands of Tree Swallows at Bear River National Wildlife Refuge and all of them are calling<\/span><\/a> they are quite noisy but I wouldn’t call it deafening. I find it appealing!<\/p>\n

It won’t be long now before I can photograph these jewel-colored swallows fighting over nest boxes, bringing in nesting materials and flying into nest boxes to feed their young.<\/p>\n

Even though the one bird in the image above is out of focus I wanted to include it to show how they squabble at their nests, besides, I like the shadow of the bird in flight on the nest box!<\/p>\n

Life is good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

These images were taken in previous years at Red Rock Lakes NWR in Montana and Bear River MBR in Utah.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Tree Swallow photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not only are Tree Swallows colorful and beautiful they are bug-zapping machines and keep the number of flying insects down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,1513,27,1148,223,12,608,2171,26],"tags":[4004,4073,3471,788,4052,4247,4122,4062,4094,530,2279,9662,4059,6428,4092,9663,165,9623,4807,3470,4377,1523],"class_list":["post-21060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-beaverhead-county-montana","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-centennial-valley","category-montana","category-red-rock-lakes-national-wildlife-refuge","category-tree-swallows","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-breeding-season","tag-bug-eating-machines","tag-first-of-year","tag-flight","tag-flock","tag-flying","tag-male","tag-marsh","tag-migration","tag-nest-box","tag-nesting-box","tag-phragmites","tag-phrags","tag-refuge","tag-return","tag-spring","tag-stand","tag-swallow","tag-swallows","tag-tachycineta-bicolor","tag-tree-swallow"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/tree-swallows-bear-river-mia-mcpherson-6859.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-5tG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":57164,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/04\/09\/spring-gathering-of-tree-swallows-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":21060,"position":0},"title":"Spring Gathering Of Tree Swallows At Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Tree Swallows were the most numerous of the swallows I saw and at the far northwest part of the auto tour route I found bunches of them resting in a stand of phragmites so I decided to get out, set up my tripod and photograph them from across the water.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spring Tree Swallows at Bear River MBR, Box Elder County, 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McPherson","date":"February 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge has five species of swallows, they are Tree, Northern Rough-winged, Violet-green, Cliff and Barn Swallows.","rel":"","context":"In "Barn Swallows"","block_context":{"text":"Barn Swallows","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/swallows\/barn-swallows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Barn Swallow at Bear River MBR, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/barn-swallow-perched-mia-mcpherson-1401.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/barn-swallow-perched-mia-mcpherson-1401.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/barn-swallow-perched-mia-mcpherson-1401.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":100381,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/03\/05\/swallow-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":21060,"position":2},"title":"Swallow Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I wanted to share swallow photos that show the six species of swallows I see and photograph in northern Utah while they are here for their nesting season.","rel":"","context":"In "Bank Swallows"","block_context":{"text":"Bank Swallows","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/swallows\/bank-swallows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Violet-green Swallow adult back view, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/violet-green-swallow-male-back-view-mia-mcpherson-1622.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/violet-green-swallow-male-back-view-mia-mcpherson-1622.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/violet-green-swallow-male-back-view-mia-mcpherson-1622.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/violet-green-swallow-male-back-view-mia-mcpherson-1622.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":125851,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/03\/25\/tree-swallows-have-migrated-into-northern-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":21060,"position":3},"title":"Tree Swallows Have Migrated Into Northern Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the weekend, I read on Facebook that Tree Swallows have migrated back into Northern Utah for their breeding season. I am so excited about that news!","rel":"","context":"In "Beaverhead County"","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tree Swallow peeking out of a natural nesting cavity in the High Uintas, Uinta Mountains, Uinta National Forest, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/tree-swallow-aspen-high-uintas-mia-mcpherson-6727.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/tree-swallow-aspen-high-uintas-mia-mcpherson-6727.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/tree-swallow-aspen-high-uintas-mia-mcpherson-6727.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Tree Swallows At Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I was glad to be able to photograph Bank, Barn, Cliff and Tree Swallows perched on top of a stand of phragmites near the auto tour route on the refuge in early morning light.","rel":"","context":"In "Bank Swallows"","block_context":{"text":"Bank Swallows","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/swallows\/bank-swallows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Barn Swallow lifting off, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/barn-swallow-adult-lifting-off-mia-mcpherson-0067.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/barn-swallow-adult-lifting-off-mia-mcpherson-0067.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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