The barn swallow is common throughout the world, all over the US, and even here in France. This is one bird you should protect and encourage. They eat only flies, mosquitos and other bugs. The numbers of insects a pair of nesting birds eat and feed their young on is just phenominal- just feeding their young alone takes an estimated 150,000 insects in 3 weeks to fledging. Two broods a year on average, it must get close to half a million bugs per nest per year! A nest takes over a thousand trips to carry each bead of mud for the construction. In a lifetime of migration and hunting a bird may travel over 2 million miles, that's 87 times round the earth!
I have a few pairs arrive each year in the woodshed, travel all the way up from Africa to see me! It's a drag remembering to keep the kitchen door shut in summer, as they are prone to pop in for tea, and it's a sod to get them to leave again - just like my mother in law! I just spread a poly sheet under their favorite beam to catch the poo. Don't put up anti-nest devices unless absolutely necessary!
Alan
