The Barn Swallows

The following  pictures are of a swallow nest with baby birds. The swallows make
their nest close to corners of buildings and very close to the ceiling .
I believe that the corner location helps to prevent the nest from becoming
detached from the wall. In one case after the swallows had left, I
began  to clean out the nest. Soon the nest became detached from the wall and
began to fall. Fortunately I was fast enough to hold on to it. I placed it back in
position and glued it in place using a hot-melt glue gun. It was very close to the
ceiling, that is, the top of the nest is very close to the ceiling. There was just
enough space for the adult bird to enter and leave the nest.  It is close to the
ceiling to make it as difficult as possible for predators to enter the nest.  In fact
most bird nests will be of such design and location so as to reduce access to
predators. Because the nest is so close to the ceiling the camera could not look
directly into the nest. I did not have the special camera that was necessary so I
used a mirror to look down in the nest.

Next     Swallow and Spider  

Additional material from source text for The Swallows DVD

Swallows
These swallows known as barn swallows, build their nest of flattened mud balls.
The nests are built with a couple of inches clearance between the top of the nest
and a ceiling. This small clearance helps to keep predators out. Both parents feed
the baby birds. The baby birds grow up and finally fledge. Particularly interesting
is the eternal life struggle by especially the smaller birds to survive in the presence
of the larger birds. The smallest of three bird died by the third day. The baby birds
celebrate after eating a meal. There was a lot of pooping. The parents, especially
the female, attended to removing the poop. Older birds clean their feathers and
exercise their wings as they prepare to leave the nest. When they leave the nest
they fly around the nest area for a few days and then go away.