Featured in The Birds – October 28, 2010

A common swallow of marshes and open fields, the Tree Swallow is a ready inhabitant of nest boxes.
Adult Description:

• Small slender songbird.
• White underneath and shiny blue-green on top.
• Small bill.
• Long wings.
  Male Description:
  Shiny blue-green upper body and head. Pure white throat and body underside.
  Female Description:
  Yearling female brown on back with faint greenish sheen and some iridescent greenish blue feathers. Underparts white, sometimes with faint brown band across breast.
  Immature Description:
  Juvenile sooty gray on back, without trace of blue. Underparts dull white. Dirty brown band across chest.
  Tree Swallows nest from northern Canada and Alaska south through much of
  the United States.

I found the Tree Swallows in the same area as the Western Bluebird where there was a series of nesting boxes attached to fence posts. The Tree Swallow does not share well and will take over the nesting boxes set out for Bluebirds unless there are enough to each take their own.

Canon Rebel XTi; Sigma 150-500mm lens@400mm
Waterton National Park, Alberta, Canada