ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW 
BREEDING RECORDS 
NESTS OR YOUNG 
mess | s conenson wancoago Fa wae A. 
@ 1950 — aoe see ee 
as | et i | Vee 
A 1900-1949 a aa 
eit eye ak Seay 
M@ BEFORE 1900 oA Ao) [7 
| HE wa es | uss® ‘s ee 
see eee : A ‘c A gece 
PAIRS OR SINGING e Po ee 
MALES. (JUNE) x (ort ee aL’ a 4 
EP || x ——- —+{ wines \ , 
2 Re ARE! roid woo ff I f | | | 
O 1950— Meee OA ques | 
Ke is Wand | 
L\ 1900 — 1949 d oS ree ae 
MASON re as gel = We 
O BEFORE 1900 a ge Beadle eer One 
pall ie loxrr | | \; 
SO mega] | a 
SANGAMO)! = oT a f = (DOUGLAS 
an h Bel EDGAR 
ala is’ N | - 
SI SHELBY 
IN | MONTGOMERY | 
~ Se 
Fig. 15.—Breeding records for the rough-winged swallow in 
Illinois. 
four to eight eggs. The eggs are white. There are 
no data on nesting success or productivity. 
Fall Migration 
Some kind of movement, perhaps local, of 
rough-winged swallows begins in northern Illinois 
at least as early as July 23, when we have seen the 
birds in “new” areas away from nesting sites. In 
southern Illinois in early August, small groups (os 
20 birds) appear widely, away from nesting sites. 
In mid-August and late August, many rough-wings 
are molting heavily, including their flight feathers. 
The only observation known to us of an actual 
migration flight is that of Mr. and Mrs. Harry A. 
Shaw (personal communication) of Sterling, Ilinois, 
who: saw a fairly steady flight, involving several 
thousand rough-wings and some nighthawks, passing 
over Sterling between 2:00 pm and dark on Sep- 
tember 2, 1968 (Fig. 14). The birds were moving 
south or slightly east of south. This impressive 
16 
migration coincides with the time of other pe: 
counts of rough-wings in Illinois (Fig. 14), and su 
migrations should be looked for each year throug 
out the state. They may be of regular occurren 
As in the spring, our poorest counts were 
central Illinois. Our highest counts were in the sou 
on the western side of the state (Fig. 14). As wi 
other species of swallows, the largest aggregatic 
of rough-wings were seen near the large rive 
For the state as a whole, we saw about 4 rous 
wings in the fall for every 1 seen in the spring, k 
the ratio in the south was nearly 11 in the fall 
1 in the spring. In central Illinois the ratio y 
reversed with only 1 bird seen in the fall to 6 in| 
spring. 
BARN SWALLOW (Hirundo rustica) 
(Fig. 16 and 17) 
Barn swallows begin to appear in Illinois 
March (only slightly behind the tree swallows) , 
least as early as the 18th (Silloway 1906) 5: 
first conspicuous waves of barn swallows have b 
observed on April 3 in southern Illinois, April 
in central Illinois, and April 25 in the north ( 
18). Peak spring populations were present f 
April 11 to May 17 in the south, April 25 to Ma‘ 
in central Illinois, and May 9 to 30 in nortl 
Illinois (Fig. 18). There was a tendency for sp 
waves to come earlier to western Illinois, and J 
to the eastern side of the state (Fig. 18). 
Local populations appear to be fairly consis 
in the timing of their spring arrival. One | 
County barn colony usually appeared between / 
11 and 13. A 25-year record of arrivals near Lib 
Illinois, showed the first barn swallows coming 
tween April 1 and April 22, but most consiste 
between April 13 and 17 (Loraine Funk, pers 
communication) . 
Though we believe the migration to be diu 
there are, surprisingly, no published descriptior 
the actual spring migration in Illinois, and we 
observed the actual migration flight only in the 
Distribution 
The North American distribution of the 
swallow is shown in Fig. 17. The species alsc 
a broad distribution in the Old World. The 
swallow is another species that probably nes 
nearly every township in Illinois, but, as yet 
state distribution is incompletely recorded (Fig. 
Nesting Habitats and Populations 
Barn swallow nests have been recorded in 
types of situations in Illinois: (1) barns, ! 
