barn swallow, Brian Repa CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Threatened Provincially and Nationally

Description

• Medium-sized songbird with glossy steel-blue back and upper wings, rusty-red forehead and throat, and short bill
• Long tail feathers form distinctive, deep fork
• Builds cup-shaped mud nests on human-made structures that are re-used from year to year
• Eats insects

Range

• Found throughout southern Ontario and as far north as Hudson Bay, where suitable locations for nests exist

Threats

• Habitat loss
• Pesticides (resulting in reduced populations of insect prey)

Protection

• Provincially protected under the Endangered Species Act, 2007
• Federally protected under the Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994

Fact

Canada’s bank swallow population declined by an estimated 98 percent between 1970 and 2011.