Angry birds

A pair of barn swallows nested again this year in my garage. When the young were ready to leave the nest, the parents became quite aggressive, swooping down to within a foot or two of anyone near the garage. It was rather amusing because they posed no real threat.

I think they had four young. Three of them are shown below, sitting on a wire. Unlike their parents, they do not seem to be bothered by humans being around. They can fly, but probably are not able to feed themselves without a bit of help from mom and dad.

 Barn swallows nest almost exclusively on human-made structures, so they have not suffered as people have colonized the world. They eat bugs, so they provide some benefit. However, they are very messy guests. The picture below shows my garage floor. You can see a trail of bird droppings under the wire that they use for roosting, and the big patch in the middle is under the nest. (Sorry if this grosses you out.)

 Here is a close-up of the area under the nest. There is no point in cleaning it up until they leave. At least this year I got them to nest in a place that is not above the car.

A lot of birds may nest near your house and you may be completely unaware of them. But if you have barn swallows, you will almost certainly notice them.