Violet-green Swallow

Tachycineta thalassina
ART LINK

STANFORD LOCATIONS:

Uncommon to fairly common migrant and summer resident. Large flocks of migrants or post-breeding individuals occasionally forage or roost on campus. Small numbers nest in natural cavities and woodpecker holes (especially near the Dish), and occasionally in crevices and cavities in buildings on campus.
Similar Species: Tree Swallow.
  
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs
Mating System
Dev.
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
F
I: 13-14 DAYS
ALTRICIAL
5 feet +
F -M(?)
4-6
MONOG
F: 16-24 DAYS
F-M
BREEDING: Conif or decid open forest or woodland, often at higher altitudes. 1 brood.
DISPLAYS: Predawn song-flights may be part of courtship.
NEST: In tree hole or other cavity; of grass and weed stems, lined with feathers.
EGGS: White, unmarked. 0.8" (19 mm).
DIET: Insects only rarely taken on ground.
CONSERVATION: Winters s to Honduras. Forestry practice of removing standing dead trees has greatly reduced availability of natural nest sites; will use nest boxes.
NOTES: Occ nest in loose colonies of up to 20 pairs. Defends area around nest hole from other cavity-nesting species of swallows. Several pairs have been documented helping Western Bluebirds to rear nestlings and subsequently breeding in the nest box after the bluebirds fledge. Like other swallows, often perches in long rows on wire. House Sparrows compete for nest cavities. Flocks occ with Tree Swallows.
ESSAYS: Communal Roosting; Wing Shapes and Flight; Bathing and Dusting; Coloniality.
REFERENCES: Brown, 1983; Eltzroth and Robinson, 1984; Ersidne, 1984.

Help Abbreviations Species-Alphabetical Species-Taxonomic Essays-Alphabetical
Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).