# Barn Swallow

*Hirundo rustica*

A single Barn Swallow can consume up to 60 insects per hour, totaling roughly 850,000 insects per year.

- **Taxonomy:** Animalia › Chordata › Aves › Passeriformes › Hirundinidae › Hirundo
- **IUCN Red List status:** Least Concern
- **Population trend:** decreasing
- **Biome:** grassland
- **Habitat:** Open country, meadows, marshes, and agricultural lands, typically near water and man-made structures.
- **Diet:** Aerial insectivore; primarily flies, beetles, wasps, and moths caught mid-air.
- **Range:** North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America
- **Size:** 15-19 cm length, 29-32 cm wingspan
- **Lifespan:** 4 years on average
- **Active:** diurnal
- **Threats:** Intensive agriculture, pesticide use reducing prey availability, and loss of traditional nesting sites.
- **Safe to approach?:** Harmless and beneficial. Observe their aerial acrobatics from a distance. If nesting on your property, avoid disturbing the nest until the fledglings have departed in late summer.

## About

The barn swallow ( Hirundo rustica ) is the most widespread species of swallow in the world. It is a distinctive passerine bird with blue upperparts, a long, deeply forked tail and curved, pointed wings. It is found in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. In Anglophone Europe it is just called the swallow ; in Northern Europe it is the only common species called a "swallow" rather than a "martin".

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/6c26e52b-0bdc-4f81-bb6b-695258860807
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/11901
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirundo rustica
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/635249690/medium.jpg (Donald Davesne, CC-BY, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.