The Bahama Swallow is a swallow

Swallow

The swallows and martins are a group of passerine birds in the family Hirundinidae which are characterised by their adaptation to aerial feeding...

 found only in the Bahamas

The Bahamas

The Bahamas , officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets . It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola , northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States...

.

Physical description

This glossy Tachycineta

Tachycineta

Tachycineta is a genus of birds in the swallow family. There are nine described species. Its members are restricted to the Americas....

swallow has a green head and back, blue upper wings, a black tail and wingtips, and a white belly and chin.

Range and habitat

This swallow breeds only in pineyards on four islands in the northern Bahamas: Andros

Andros, Bahamas

Andros Island is an archipelago within the archipelago-nation of the Bahamas, the largest of the 26 inhabited Bahamian Islands. Geo-politically considered a single island, Andros has an area greater than all the other 700 Bahamian islands combined...

, Grand Bahama

Grand Bahama

Grand Bahama is one of the northernmost of the islands of the Bahamas, and the closest major island to the United States, lying off the state of Florida. Grand Bahama is the fifth largest island in the Bahamas island chain of approximately 700 islands and 2,400 cays...

, Abaco

Abaco Islands

The Abaco Islands lie in the northern Bahamas and comprise the main islands of Great Abaco and Little Abaco, together with the smaller Wood Cay, Elbow Cay, Lubbers Quarters Cay, Green Turtle Cay, Great Guana Cay, Castaway Cay, Man-o-War Cay, Stranger's Cay, Umbrella Cay, Walker's Cay, Little Grand...

, and New Providence

New Providence

New Providence is the most populous island in the Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. It also houses the national capital city, Nassau.The island was originally under Spanish control following Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World, but the Spanish government showed...

. The breeding population on New Providence is, at the very least, greatly reduced from historical levels, and may in fact be extirpated as a breeding species http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=7084&m=0.
The Bahama Swallow winters throughout the Bahamas and perhaps in eastern Cuba, but in general the full extent wintering range is poorly known http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=7084&m=0. It is a rare vagrant elsewhere during migration, including south Florida and the Florida Keys. It is also an occasional vagrant to the southerly Americas

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

.

T. cyaneoviridis is a bird of the Caribbean pine forests. They are somewhat capable of adapting to urban

Urban wildlife

Urban wildlife is wildlife that can live or thrive in urban environments. Some urban wildlife, such as house mice, are synanthropic, ecologically associated with humans. Different types of urban area support different kinds of wildlife...

 habitat. Although they do not breed in marshland and fields, they need such habitat to forage; like all swallows they feed on flying insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s.

Reproduction

Bahama Swallows nest in old woodpecker

Woodpecker

Woodpeckers are near passerine birds of the order Piciformes. They are one subfamily in the family Picidae, which also includes the piculets and wrynecks. They are found worldwide and include about 180 species....

 holes in Caribbean Pine

Caribbean Pine

The Caribbean Pine, Pinus caribaea, is a hard pine native to Central America, Cuba, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. It inhabits tropical and subtropical coniferous forests, which include both lowland savannas and montane forests...

 (Pinus caribaea var. bahamensis), using pine needles, Casuarina

Casuarina

Casuarina is a genus of 17 species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australasia, southeast Asia, and islands of the western Pacific Ocean. It was once treated as the sole genus in the family, but has been split into three genera .They are evergreen shrubs and trees growing to 35 m tall...

twigs, and grass to make the nest, and they line it with feathers from other passerine

Passerine

A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...

s. They typically have three eggs. Incubation is 15 days and the fledging period is roughly 22 days.