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.
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