Northern rough-winged swallow

Description:

Adults are plain brown above with a white belly and buffy throat and upper breast. They have square tails and white under-tail coverts, sometimes visible from above on the sides of their rumps when the bird is in flight.

Habitat:

Spotted at the Tolt River-John MacDonald Park near the Snoqualmie river. They can be found from mid-April through August at lower elevations throughout Washington were there is appropriate nesting habitat nearby, especially around farms and the floodplains of major rivers.

Notes:

Medium-distance migrants, Northern Rough-winged Swallows typically migrate in flocks of mixed swallow species to Mexico and Central America. They arrive in Washington in April and leave in the late summer, soon after the young fledge. Because both fall and spring migrations extend over many weeks, large concentrations of migrants are unusual.