Nature Trail: Barn Swallows make an epic journey from Africa

Irish Independent

10-05-2025

By now, lots of them have made the journey to our shores from their wintering grounds in South Africa and they are a common sight as they get on with their annual chore of building a nest, laying eggs and rearing a family.
The average adult Swallows weights about 20 grammes roughly equivalent to the weight of 20 shirt buttons. It is amazing to think that such a light little creature flies all the way from Africa what with facing such obstacles as crossing both the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean sea and coping with all that the weather can throw at it.
The journey is about 10,000km long and it is known that birds can travel 300km a day almost as long as a trip from Cork to Donegal. Allowing for holdups due to weather along the way and allowing minimum time for feeding and resting, a fit bird would still need about six weeks to complete the epic journey.
Those that do make the long and hazardous trip are starting to build now. Nowadays most Swallows nest indoors favouring all sorts of agricultural buildings from barns to sheds, outbuildings, dairies, etc. Having a Swallow nesting in a building is traditionally taken to be a sign of god luck. Both parents build the nest. They start by collecting mud pellets and reinforcing each pellet with fibres of plant material.
The pellets are stuck together to fashion an open shallow cup and the whole structure is firmly attached to some support like a wall, rafter, or girder. For comfort, the cup may be sparsely lined with feathers. The female lays four or five flossy white eggs and she incubates them for about two weeks before they hatch.
Both parents feed the young for three weeks before they fly. Insects caught in flight comprise the staple diet. These insects are stored in the parents' throats and the nourishing ball of food is delivered to the hungry youngsters by their attentive parents.
Once the young have flown, the parents go on to raise a second and even a third family. Having a third family is risky as both parents and youngsters may be ill prepared to make the marathon journey back to the wintering grounds in Africa.