Slight Extension of Breeding Range of Barn Swallow in Orange County
Slight Extension of Breeding Range of Barn Swallow in Orange County
The Barn Swallow (Hirundo erythrogaster), formerly nesting only in certain places along the beaches in this section of California, has been gradually extending its breeding range inland during the last few years, using, for the most part, small bridges over drainage ditches as nesting sites.
On July 28, 1932, a brood of four young Barn Swallows left a nest built under a small road bridge about one mile northwest of Cypress, this location being about nine miles airline from the nearest point on the beach and in territory where the species has not nested before to my knowledge. The floor timbers of this bridge were only about two feet above the stagnant water, and the bridge is only about ten feet long. Neither the adults nor the young have been seen since the day the young left the nest, and a canvass of the other bridges within a radius of two miles failed to show any other birds of the same species.
John McB. Robertson
Buena Park, California, August 8, 1932
