Brian Barn Swallow
Brian came to us as a pin-feathered youngster,
not nearly ready to fly. He had been found by member Jan Wagoner on the floor of the horse barn. It appeared that
Brian had hatched later than his nest mates and had been accidentally left behind.
When it
was time to release Brian, member Connie Green (Jan's sister), came to the rescue. Connie had planned to spend an
entire day in the horse barn and so could release Brian and be present in case he needed help in some way.
She reported that evening that when she and Brian arrived at the barn she took Brian out of his carrying case and
placed him up high near an old swallow nest. Brian could hear the swallows outside and had quite an amazed look on his
face, but flitted around checking out the new location and "chatted" with Connie when she fed him
a couple of times. When a swallow takes a bite of food they make a fast, feeding chatter which one of the swallows outside
heard. That new swallow silently slipped into the barn, unnoticed by Connie. A little while passed and
Brian moved over to a rafter going towards the inside of he barn. "Wrong way," Connie told him as she continued
to work. It was a few more minutes when Brian, with the adult swallow started circling inside the barn. Then swoosh,
out the door they went.
The adult swallow heard Brian's feeding baby chatter and
had come in to see who was in the barn. Being afraid of the human, the adult called Brian to the back of the barn to
test his flying skills before escorting him out to meet the colony and give Brian his first hunting lesson.
A lot of birds travel in flocks, but birds who form colonies will accept, adopt and train a juvenile of their own
species to successfully survive and thrive.
Connie reported that the swallows do come back
into the barn to sleep, but she could not tell which was Brian. He was acting like a real swallow and being cared for
by the colony.
Below is a picture of Brian just before release.
