The barn swallow is a very important asset here at Utah Lake. As they zoom up and down and around and around they eat flies, aphids, beetles, bees, moths, mayflies, dragonflies, grasshoppers, caterpillars, midges other insect they catch. They are quite the flying performers much like the hummingbirds.

   These little birds used to live side-by-side with humans and typically nest inside barns. In the barns they form colonies with nests of around 10 pairs. Barn Swallows tend to nest on other man-made structures such as bridges, wharves, buildings, underpasses on freeways and anything else they can find. Here at the Utah Lake they like the cabanas that cover the picnic area.
  The nests are built with straw, weeds or grass and pellets they make out of mud then they are lined with feathers. Their nests are build close to the ceiling on a beam or tucked under the eaves.

   These swift little birds are everywhere, North America, Europe, Asia, Burma, Israel, and Northern Africa. The North American Barn Swallows can be found breeding from Alaska to Canada, throughout the United States, and Central Mexico. The best way to know that you are seeing the North American Barn Swallow is their flight patterns which will make you dizzy trying to follow, they very seldom will glide and the adults have a long, deeply forked tail emphasized by the tail streamers.