Did you know that the average barn swallow can eat 60 insects each hour? This would include mosquitoes, grasshoppers, beetles, and flies—so it’s really a no brainer to make your farm an inviting place for this bird species to call home. Traditionally, barn swallows built their mud-constructed nests in caves, but overhang areas of barns and outbuildings, along with open fields and ponds for hunting, is what attracted them to farms, hence the name ‘barn swallows’. It was a win-win situation for the farmer and the birds.
However, likely due to the rise of commercial farming and decline of smaller, family farms in the 1980s, the North American population of barn swallows has dropped off significantly. We are fortunate to have a good number of swallows living on our property, and I’ve seen them in action, swooping low to snatch up insects as I mow or drag the arena.
If you’d like to attract barn swallows to your farm to help out with natural pest control, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Barn swallows prefer open air space to forage as opposed to forested or urbanized areas. They tend to nest near grasslands, fields, marshes, and bodies of water.
- Less frequently mown fields harbor more insects, providing more food for the swallows. (Our hay fields are ideal for them, for example.)
- Barn swallows drink by skimming over the surface of ponds, lakes, or wide streams and also eat the insects around bodies of water.
- Pesticides and insecticides will deter swallows.
- Swallows also need spots to perch: wires, clotheslines, antennas, etc.
It’s important to note that barn swallows need some type of platform on which to build their nests. They will either affix them to a vertical surface or build them on a shelf; providing a shelf or platform to build upon saves the swallows from needing to construct one out of mud pellets (which is quite labor-intensive for them). A nesting platform can be as simple as a 2×4 ledge.
Another option for attracting swallows is to hang artificial nest cups made from wood, clay, or concrete and nesting shelves or put up a special nesting structure. Place these structures where you’d like the swallows to nest.
Barn swallows can make a great addition to any farm. Not only are they fun to watch but they will help keep the number of pest insects under control and that’s always a nice thing!
