Violet-Green Swallow

Description:

As pictured, this is a mating pair. Both have white breasts, while the male is distinguished by white in the chin out to above the eye (1st photo), and the female white to below the eye (2nd Photo). Both have a deep dark green back and upper wings, with forked tails.

Habitat:

These swallows were spotted in the top of cliffs above Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River a few miles from Page, AZ. The pair pictured had a nest in a crack in the cliffs about 1,000 feet (300 m) above the river. The nest was about 10 feet from the top of the cliffs (5th photo, crevice lower right), which went straight down to the river. Very scenic, but not easy to reach by a photographer who gets dizzy even thinking about a 1000 foot drop.

Notes:

These birds catch insects on the fly. In my research for this posting, it was interesting to find that ‘swallows' are so named because they fly with mouth open while ‘swallowing' insects. They were adept at darting close to the cliffs and plateau above the river…and were very difficult to photograph in flight. I was fortunate to get a few photos of them perched above the nest. Otherwise, I could not spot any except in flight. According to online sources, these birds migrate south in the winter into Mexico and Central America.