Widespread and familiar, the Barn Swallow is closely associated with human habitation and now nests almost exclusively on human-made structures. It is well monitored in Canada by the Breeding Bird Survey, which shows a loss of about 80% of the population since 1970. Because of this large decline, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada assessed the Barn Swallow as Threatened in 2011 (COSEWIC 2011a). The species was listed under the Species at Risk Act in 2017. This species has been identified as a priority for conservation and/or stewardship in one or more Bird Conservation Region Strategies in Canada.
The Barn Swallow is one of several species of aerial-foraging insectivores showing widespread declines in Canada. A special analysis of Breeding Bird Survey results, designed to determine change points in trend, indicated that swallows, swifts, and nightjars experienced a decrease starting in the mid-1980s across most of North America (Smith et al. 2015). That was the beginning of a continuing, long-term decline for this group of species. Causes of these declines remain unclear, but changes in the abundance of aerial insects have been suggested as one possible factor as well as landscape changes, the effects of insecticides on prey, and climate change (Blancher et al. 2009, Nebel et al. 2010). Historically, Barn Swallows have benefitted from agricultural and other developments that provide nesting sites; the species may be more abundant in developed areas now than previously. However, more recently, the modernization of farms may have reduced the number of available nest sites in some areas, while the construction of bridges and other infrastructures have increased nest sites in others (Brown and Brown 1999). Barn Swallow populations in the Northeast overwinter the furthest south where substantial landscape change has occurred (Hobson et al. 2015, Hobson et al. 2015a). The species may also be affected by competition for nesting sites from House Sparrows (COSEWIC 2011a). For information on the legal status of this species under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) see the SARA Registry.
Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:
Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.
