When Cliff Swallows are gathering mud for their nests a peaceful and constructive activity can turn into mayhem in a nanosecond.
Three days ago in the mountains I was attempting to get takeoff and flight shots of Cliff Swallows with a load of mud for their nests in their bills. I was focusing on the bird at bottom while it was peacefully gathering mud. As I waited for it to take off another swallow attacked from out of nowhere and for no reason that I could see.
In order to help me tell the story and make it easier for readers to keep the players straight I’m going to assign names to both birds. I’ll call the innocent victim ‘George’ and the attacking swallow ‘Derek’. All photos are presented in the order they were taken.
Derek attacked from the air and from behind and immediately pinned George down while biting the back of his neck and…
forcing his head down and into the mud.
For a moment George managed to raise his head back up but…
Derek slammed it back down into the mud and….
held it there for…
a relatively long time – long enough for me to get many photos similar to these.
Fighting Cliff Swallows have been known to drown in the water or mud and it appeared to me as if Derek had exactly that in mind for George.
But George had a different outcome in mind. With a herculean effort he pushed himself up like a phoenix rising out of the mud and he put retaliatory pressure on Derek’s own neck in the process.
With his victim now in a better position to defend himself Derek apparently decided that discretion was the better part of valor and got the hell out of Dodge.
Cliff Swallows fight regularly and viciously and often for ‘unknown reasons’. Their battles can last for 15 minutes or more. Cornell’s Birds of the World suggests one possible reason for them fighting while gathering mud for their nests:
- “When attempting extra-pair copulations at mud holes, males sometimes seem to mistake other males for females, and a copulation attempt turns into a fight in the mud.”
Whatever the reason for this fight I’m glad George escaped with his life. They don’t always.
Ron
A brilliant series
And an excellent description of what was happening and (probably) why.
Well done.
Thanks very much, Gary.
Great photo essay. I’ve seen many fights among Cliff Swallows but seldom as prolonged or violent as this one. Barn Swallows also collect mud for nest-building yet you seldom see such fights. But Barn Swallows are mostly solitary-nesters, forming small colonies usually only when nesting substrate is limited, so they don’t congregate in groups to gather mud. It is also the females that do most of the nest-building (with some help from the male) and they are typically less aggressive than males. In Cliff Swallows males initiate nest-building and are more involved throughout the process than in Barn Swallows. These birds are known for being the most peaceful of birds. Back at the nest colony, they often continue to fight with each other in other ways. Thanks for sharing
Dan, sometimes I see a mixed grouping of Barn and Cliff Swallows collecting mud close to each other but I’ve never noticed the two species fighting with each other when they do it.
But nearly every time I’m watching Cliff Swallows collecting mud I see at least one serious fight, Cliff vs Cliff. Sometimes several.
What an incredible series (another phrase I type so often here it needs a shortcut).
I am so glad that George unlike his name sake could rise again, and quite certain he couldn’t breathe.
On the name front in our childhood when all of us denied doing something my parents always sarcastically said ‘I suppose George did it’. It became a family phrase and if we didn’t wan’t to admit to anything we all said that ‘Georgie dun it’. There are definitely names from my childhood that are so attached to negative experience that decades later meeting a new ‘whatever the name was’ I am instantly prejudiced against them.
We are a weird lot.
I react to some names for reasons similar to what you describe, EC.
It’s interesting to note that in 2018 the name ‘Donald’ fell to its lowest ranking in popular baby names since the 1880’s according to the US Social Security Administration:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-baby-name-popularity_l_5cd07cd4e4b0548b735e2aa2
I have to wonder how the name ‘Derek’ will fare in the coming years.
I suspect that my reaction to parents who name their child Donald (or Derek) at the moment would be negative.
That’s almost more drama than I can handle on this Sunday morning … but what an epic series of images! And I didn’t realize how colorful cliff swallows are, let alone how nasty they can be. So I’m happy this George escaped with his life. Great post, Ron, keeping it real for us.
Yup, keeping it real, Chris – in more ways than one.
I did not realize cliff swallows were so feisty. I guess I felt since they were a colony living bird they were more sociable. I will have to watch more closely at the mud holes next time.
Just curious, did your teaching experience effect what names you chose? My friend had a hard time naming her children after teaching 10 years. Certain names brought back memories of undesirable traits.
That’s why I never had kids. After so many years of teaching, there was no name that I could call my own child which wouldn’t cause an immediate spike in blood pressure. 😉
Nope, not my teaching experience, April. Current and tragic events were responsible for the names I chose. The situations seemed similar in some ways.
I get it now, I am a bit slow! Jeez, getting slower……..
A Herculean effort, indeed. I’m thankful to see a happy ending for both birds.
Me too, Marty. It was touch and go for a while.
Most interesting! At first I wondered if it was a moment of mistaken gender… I’ve seen ducks holding the female’s head down in the water so long that I began to think she was going to drown before she could struggle enough to lift her head out. What ever this was it certainly was interesting.
Thank you, Kathy.
What a series! Again (being ridiculously redundant yet another time) just WOW!
I wonder if the fight(s) aren’t over ownership (for lack of a better term) of an area with the exact composition of the dirt needed to build a strong nest? It’s hard to imagine the chemical/mineral composition could vary that much that it would elicit that level of violence, but then again, I’m not a cliff swallow, either. Birds know a lot of stuff that I don’t know!
I’m glad George survived Derek’s attack to fight another day. As for the outcome of the other George, if he would have fought back, his death might only have come more swiftly with the application of a bullet.
Thanks, Laura. It would be nice to know the precise motivations for a lot of bird behaviors, including this one. On the other hand, the mysteries are part of the reason so many of us are fascinated by birds.
WOW!! That is some series you captured! Congratulations, absolutely terrific!
Thanks very much, Dick.
Well, this post sure got the mental gears revved up first thing In the morning. So many analogies. Glad this George survived. If only that were true of the other George.
“If only that were true of the other George”
If only…
Outstanding series Ron. Ali vs Frazier or Sugar Ray Robinson vs Jake LaMotta. George looked like he was down for the count, but he did indeed make a herculean effort to free himself from George’s take down. You were the right guy at the right time to get these photos.
Maybe one of your followers will have some knowledge of this particular behavior among swallows.
Thanks, Everett. I was actually worried about George for a few moments, thinking he might drown in the soupy mud.
GEEZ! I’ve never witnessed that behavior tho, possibly, due to the illusive nature of mud holes here! Surprised that George came up with a clean face obviously having emptied his mouth of the mud!
Poor GHO this morning arrived to roost a bit too late. Usual robins/chickadees/gold finches are bad enough – adding in the grackles we have this year REALLY upped the game! 🙁 Settling down some now.
Glorious rain last night – finally – 1.5″ worth and, generally, not a gully washer…… YES!
Judy, if you ever find them gathering mud at a mud hole you’ll see them fighting if you watch for a few minutes. That’s almost guaranteed. They’re feisty little rascals.
I remember how much we appreciated slow drenching rains on the MT farm, unless it rained so much our creek flooded. When that happened it could cause a lot of problems.