The Barn Swallow is an insect eating bird. It catches insects in flight. They build cupped nests from mud and animal hair.They tend to build their nests attached to man made structures.

There are a lot of migratory birds either passing through on their way north or coming back to north Texas for the summer. One of my favorites is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology it is eastern North America’s only breeding hummingbird and has the largest breeding range of any North American Hummingbird. We have a lot of coral trumpet honeysuckle and trumpet vines in our area. Since the Ruby Throat likes red or orange tubular flowers we have a lot of these birds around our place. They also like to eat small insects such as gnats, fruit flies and mosquitoes.

I saw the first Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher of the year this morning. These birds are usually only seen in several states in the south central US. It is the state bird of Oklahoma. You can’t mistake these birds with their long forked tail and salmon colored flanks. You usually see them perched on fences or power lines. They catch most of their insect diet on the fly.

The Painted Bunting is the most colorful of North American birds. They are a migratory bird that winters in Mexico. They nest in the thickets on our place and feed primarily on seeds on the ground. The Painted Buntings are  fond of the seeds of the Texas dandelion that cover our pastures.