cliff swallow
Petrochelidon latin

The cliff swallows build their nests side by side, many together.

The cliff swallow, however, is much more sophisticated.

Mud is also used by several creatures, such as the potter wasp and the cliff swallow.

Cliff swallows darted along the riverbanks in the quiet dusk.

San Juan Capistrano is also famous for its cliff swallows.

Cliff swallows were nesting under the 1917 Market Street Bridge.

An example is the Cliff Swallow of western North America.

The nest, unusually for a cliff swallow, is often made just from grass and leaves, but may be reinforced with mud.

Dogs barked, and cliff swallows skimmed in the dying glow above shell-colored towers.

American Cliff Swallows breed in large colonies.

White-throated swifts, cliff swallows, canyon wrens and bumblebees of prodigious size also sailed past.

They build a cup nest in a cavity on a cliff, or re-use abandoned Cliff Swallow nests.

The ceiling and surrounding cliffs of the grotto are home to moss, maidenhair fern and cliff swallows.

A recent discovery has shown that some North American cliff swallows actually carry eggs from their own nest to other swallows' nests nearby.

Birds present in moderate numbers are the red-winged blackbird, cliff swallow, northern harrier and barn swallow.

Like all swallows and martins, Cliff Swallows subsist primarily on a diet of insects which are caught in flight.

This is exactly what a number of species of birds have done - golden eye, European starling, moorhen and North American cliff swallow among them.

In turn, the House Sparrow has once been recorded as a brood parasite of the American Cliff Swallow.

The genus includes all of the five species of birds commonly called Cliff Swallow, and contains the following species:

The adult Cliff Swallow has an iridescent blue back and crown, brown wings and tail, and buff rump.

Female American Cliff Swallows are known to lay eggs in and move previously laid eggs into the nests of other birds within the colony.

The spot is perhaps best known, in legend and song, for the cliff swallows that return every spring on St. Joseph's Day to rebuild their mud nests.

Three days of cliff swallows swooping overhead, a narrow stripe of sky at night with fragments of constellations bumping against the canyon walls.

There, three wives and some of the grown children (there are 28 in all) have their own private houses set in caves, like nests of cliff swallows.

Birds like cormorants, darter, white ibis, great stone plover, cliff swallow, spoonbills, lesser whistling teal roost here all through the year.

Petrochelidon is a genus of birds known as cliff-nesting swallows.

Fairy Martin (Petrochelidon ariel)

Tree Martin (Petrochelidon nigricans)

Cave Swallow (Petrochelidon fulva)

Red Sea Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon perdita)

South African Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon spilodera)

American Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota)

The Tree Martin (Petrochelidon nigricans) is a member of the swallow family of passerine birds.

Red-throated Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon rufigula)

Preuss's Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon preussi)

The American Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) is a member of the passerine bird family Hirundinidae - the swallows and martins.

The Streak-throated Swallow or the Indian Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon fluvicola) is a species of swallow found in South Asia.

Conversely, if the Delichon house martins are considered to be a separate genus, as is normally the case, Cecropis, Petrochelidon and Ptyonoprogne should also be split off.

Preuss's Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon preussi), also known as Preuss's Swallow, is a species of bird in the Hirundinidae family.

This reduction in competition permits the dense breeding colonies typical of the Delichon and Petrochelidon genera, but colonial breeding is not inevitable; most Cecropis species are solitary nesters.

Hirundo species also build open nests, Delichon house martins have a closed nest, and the Cecropis and Petrochelidon swallows have retort-like closed nests with an entrance tunnel.

Swallows in the genera Hirundo, Ptyonoproggne, Cecropis, Petrochelidon and Delichon build mud nests close to overhead shelter in locations that are protected from both the weather and predators.

Its brown back, white throat, small size and quick jerky flight separate it at once from similar swallows, such as the House Martin (Delichon urbicum), the Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) or other species of Riparia.

Although the nests of the Ptyonoprogne crag martins resembles those of typical Hirundo species like the Barn Swallow, the research showed that if Delichon, Cecropis and Petrochelidon are split from Hirundo, Ptyonoprogne should also be treated as a separate genus.

The Delichon species construct a closed mud nest and therefore belong to the latter group; they appear to be intermediate between the Hirundo and Ptyonoprogne species that make open cup nests, and the Cecropis and Petrochelidon swallows, which have retort-like closed nests with an entrance tunnel.