Since I’ve been posting a lot of barn swallow pictures lately, I thought I’d take a moment to show a little love for the tree swallows. Spring brings the return of the swallows to the skies above the marshes at Ridgefield, providing good views of not just barn and tree swallows but cliff swallows as well (I’ve no pictures of the cliff swallows unfortunately).

A few small groves of trees provide nesting locations for tree swallows like this one, which had paused on a branch near a potential nesting site. It only stayed still for a brief moment before taking to the skies once more.

One noticeable difference between barn and tree swallows, apart from the obvious color differences, is that only barn swallows have tail feathers that extend out much further than the long swept wings.