This is Brodie with Illinois Extension and I’m here with a new “voice of the wild”

You might find this low-flying acrobat hunting over a pond, or taking advantage of all the insects kicked up in the wake of a field implement passing through a field or pasture. Though they were probably never rare in North America, they’ve greatly benefited from the proliferation of our rural infrastructure. Nowadays, no bridge or barn is complete without a few of their little mud nests. This is the barn swallow.

No other swallow in North America has a tail that’s as deeply forked as the barn swallow’s. Despite this, the swallows can be tricky to ID by sight. They fly fast, low, and seemingly always with the sun right behind them. Sound can give you a good hint; and the barn swallow is fairly vocal, seeming almost conversational with themselves and their airborne compatriots. to me their back and forth oscillations, often interspersed with clicking, sound almost like the opening and closing of a good pair of scissors. Here’s the barn swallow again.

Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for today’s sound. Learn more about voice of the wild at go.illinois.edu/VOW