On farms throughout Southwest Washington, barn swallows are easy to spot.
Plus, the swallows are as helpful as they are beautiful. Swooping down as they hunt on the wing, the birds eat annoying bugs, including mosquitoes.
Their iridescent blue wings and striking yellow-orange bellies make them both beautiful and helpful barn inhabitants.
Swallows nest on man-made structures and in walls of cliffs, rock or mud, and are abundant along muddy river banks. To spot some, head to a nearby barn or to the river at dusk.
Learn more about the barn swallow atallaboutbirds.org/guide/Barn_Swallow/id.
Bonus beak: Northern red flicker
A woodpecker by any other name would be just as loud, occasionally obnoxious and create just as many holes in dying trees.
The Northern red flicker fits that bill. A flashy, spotted, red, orange and gray bird that’s just larger than an American robin, the flicker is a tree-clinger and pecker.
They nest in trees, just as other woodpeckers do, but their eating habits set them apart.
Flickers eat beetles and ants on the ground, as well as in trees. When walking up on one foraging on the ground, it’s easy to startle them. In flight, they display their colorful wings and small, white patch of feathers on their rumps.
They’re year-round inhabitants of Washington and elsewhere across North America.
Learn more at allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/overview.
