Rare bank swallows call Youghall Beach home

A rare colony of bank swallows is attractingattention in the Bathurst area.

A video posted by birder Sabine Bittner shows the birds swooping in and out of their home on the banks of Youghall Beach.

"It's wonderful to see," said Bittner. "They're great to watch, very entertaining. It's a very small species -- I guess they are the smallest of all the swallows that we have here and they make up for it busyness and zipping around and singing and catching every bug in the area, which is great because we have lots."

Bank swallows were declared endangered in New Brunswick in March and it's believed there are only a handful of nesting colonies in the province.

"They need a nice loose sandy structure for their nesting site, they need open habitat to forage over," said Allison MacKay, coastal conservation coordinator with Nature NB.

"They need a habitat that's going to be producing a lot of insects because that's what they eat. And so they kind of need all of these different elements before they can set up in an area. And Youghall has all of those elements to it. So they go there almost every year."

Bank swallows at Youghall Beach

3 years ago

Duration 0:27

A colony of endangered bank swallows has made Youghall Beach their home.

The small birds typically make their homes in river banks and coastal bluffs, where erosion has taken place. At one time, habitats like the one in Youghall Beach peppered the coastline, said MacKay.

"Now, more and more people are armouring against [coastal] erosion, which is a completely understandable action... But from the bank swallow's point of view, that's where they live and they can't nest if there's rocks blocking the cliff face. So now there is less and less habitat for them within the province because more and more of the coastline is being armoured against erosion."

MacKay said a lack of insects to eat has also contributed to the population decline.

And although some might worry drawing attention to the colony could create problems for the birds, both MacKay and Bittner said there is an upside.

"If you're aware that this species is in trouble and you know that they really need these vertical banks and they really need marshlands and they really need open habitats with insects, then there are different behaviours that humans can take, different actions, different steps that people can take to protect them and to help them through the breeding cycle," said MacKay.

Bittner advises people to keep a safe distance from the nest and to not disturb the birds.