How Do Swallows Spend the Winter? A Detailed Explanation of Swallows' Overwintering Habits

Every summer, there are some swallow nests under the eaves of many homes, and from time to time you can see swallows catching food to feed their young. By early spring, the swallows are gone. So how do swallows spend the winter?

1. How do swallows spend the winter?

When spending the winter, swallows fly south in flocks, because in winter the south is warmer and still has many insects, so food is relatively plentiful. When spring comes the following year and the willows begin to sprout, they fly back to the places where they lived before.

2. What do swallows eat?

Swallows are beneficial birds to humans, feeding mainly on insects such as mosquitoes and flies. A single swallow can prey on more than 500,000 various pests in one summer, protecting crops. The swallow is a well-known summer migrant bird in China, migrating to the north in early spring each year, spreading across the country in summer, and after breeding, flocking and moving south to overwinter in India, the Nanyang Islands and Australia. Swallows feed on insects, and they have always been accustomed to catching flying insects in the air, and are not good at searching for insect food in tree crevices and ground cracks. They also cannot, like grouse and ptarmigan, eat berries, seeds and switch to eating leaves in winter (some coniferous tree species do not shed their leaves even in winter), and cannot, like woodpeckers and treecreepers, dig out the dormant insect larvae, pupae and eggs. In the northern winter there are no flying insects for swallows to prey on, hence the migration.

Swallows are most willing to be close to humans, and humans most protect this beneficial bird. Generally from April to July they return from the islands to breed near farmhouses close to farmland (insects). Barn swallows build their nests under the eaves of farmhouses. The nest is mostly made by bonding mud and grass stems carried in the beak with saliva, lined with fine soft weeds, feathers, rags and so on, and some sweet wormwood leaves. The nest is dish-shaped. They breed 2 clutches each year, mostly from May to early June and from mid-June to early July. Each clutch has 4 to 6 eggs. The second clutch is fewer, 2 to 5 eggs. The eggs are milky white. The male and female incubate the eggs together. The young birds hatch in 14 to 15 days, and the parent birds feed them together. The nestlings fly out after about 20 days, and after being fed for another 5 to 6 days, they can feed themselves. Their food is all insects. The golden-rumped swallow resembles the barn swallow in shape but is slightly larger. This swallow has a chestnut-yellow rump that is very obvious and eye-catching, and the underparts have fine small black streaks, making it easy to distinguish from the barn swallow. Its habits are also similar to those of the barn swallow, but it mostly inhabits mountain villages. The swallow is a typical migratory bird. After the breeding season ends, the young birds still follow the adult birds in their activities and gradually gather into large groups.