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Tree Swallow

Tachycineta bicolor

Published on Project Noah
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34.4098, -119.697

Field Notes

Description:

A swallow/swift type bird. Dark above, white beneath. Long thin wings. Very fast flyer. Spent most of its time catching insects on the wing or from the lake surface. i tried to capture that but they were too fast.

Habitat:

flying above a lake catching insects

Species ID Suggestions

Black Phoebe

Sayornis nigricans

Reference Link
Ava T-B
2

Comments (3)
AshleyT
Nothing wrong with your photography! Birds are hard to photograph, especially the ones that fly fast! I definitely agree it's a type of swallow by the behavior you're describing, and from the colors I can see it really says Tree Swallow to me. But looking at it again it looks like it has a really long tail, which would be the forked tail of the Barn Swallow, but it just doesn't look right for a Barn Swallow. Maybe a few more people will chime in with their thoughts :)
Steven Sheppard
Unfortunately not. I know my photography is bad, but without a boat and a faster camera I could only get one shot off before it started flying around again. This little bird, and her friends, were really fast!
AshleyT
Do you have any photos that show the face? Pretty sure it's a female Tree Swallow but can't be too confident without seeing the front of it.

Spotted for Missions

Mission
Birds of the World
Photographed
PublishedJune 27, 2014

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