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Found in western North America and Central America

Hear Their Calls

Chim-chiminee-chim-chim-charoo! ’Tis the season you might just find Vaux’s Swifts in your chimney. 

These nimble, brown-gray birds with beady black eyes are currently in their roosting season, and they like to build their nests in elevated spots like tree hollows or, in cities, tall chimneys. (They secure their nests of twigs to the walls with their sticky saliva.) 

Vaux’s Swifts gather to roost by the hundreds or even thousands and are quite the sight to see as they burst from the roost at dawn, or return all at once to their roosting spot at nightfall. (You can read more about this year’s sightings in Portland, Oregon here, and find out where to see them this month in our links below.)

They spend most of their days in the air hunting insects, and can return to feed their young 50 times in one day. Those are some hardworking parents!

Fun fact: Vaux Swifts are the smallest Swifts in North America.

Give a Hoot

Birding bits you should know about this week

👀 Look up
Swift watch
Join a viewing party of the thousands of Vaux’s Swifts that migrate through Portland, Oregon during this time of year! They flock to a local elementary school with a high perch, and there’s a nightly gathering through September 30. Here’s a cool video of what that might look like. (Thanks to reader Greg T. for the tip!)

👂 Listen up
Why the “elevator music of birding” is my new favorite tune
A “mediocre birder” writes about how using the Merlin ID app helped him fall in love with the sounds of the Warbling Vireo.

☔ Learn
Where do birds go when it storms?
Did you ever wonder how birds stay warm, dry, and sheltered when it rains? Find out!

When it comes to your backyard birds, only the best will do. Flying Colors’ premium organic wild bird food is now available in a beautiful three-gallon carton. The best part? It’s available on Amazon.com and eligible for 2-day Prime shipping! 

Choose from three custom blends — Pine Plains, Woodstock, and Millbrook — all made with 100% USDA certified organic ingredients like, sunflower hearts and safflower, and hand-mixed with love in New York's Hudson Valley.

Your Shot

An amazing bird photo taken by one of our community members. Submit yours to hello@flyingcolors.co to be considered for an upcoming edition!

Spring comes little, a little. All April it rains.

The new leaves stick in their fists; new ferns still fiddleheads.

But one day the swifts are back. Face to the sun like a child

You shout, 'The swifts are back!'

Sure enough, bolt nocks bow to carry one sky-scyther

Two hundred miles an hour across fullblown windfields.

Swereee swereee. Another. And another.

It's the cut air falling in shrieks on our chimneys and roofs.

— “Swifts” by Anne Stevenson

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Questions? Ideas? Epic bird photos? Reach out at hello@flyingcolors.co

About Us

Flying Colors makes premium organic wild bird food, offering ethically sourced, toxin-free seeds and nuts of the highest quality to nourish wild birds of all types and inspire birders of all ages. Each specialty blend and single origin creation is rigorously sourced & researched, and every jar is produced with love & packaged by hand in small batches in New York's Hudson Valley and tested in our own backyards.