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Hiya! Bark Ranger Gracie here, back to share some more about my
very favorite place in the whole wide world, Glacier National
Park.
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I've been told that
Black Swifts are the most mysterious birds in Glacier!

Donations to the Glacier National Park Conservancy and Montana
Audubon are helping us to better understand these little
birds. They have been recorded traveling over 4,000 miles to
their winter homes in Brazil and then return to North America in
the late spring to nest in shady, sheltered
spots--typically behind waterfalls. And I thought my commute to
Logan Pass was long!

Since it's not safe for dogs to be on trails in the park, I'm
going to have to take one Citizen Scientist's word for it when
she described her experience looking for Black Swift nests to
help get an accurate count of the population in the park. That's
her, in the image up above!

“The sound of water rushing fills my ears. I lay on my back in
the grass staring up at the sky. The ground growls from the
waterfall to my left. I squint as a black flash crosses the sky.
Could it be a black swift? My eyes try to follow it toward the
cave as I sit up. ‘BIRD IN’ I yell, hoping one of my partners
will be able to spot it entering the surveyed spot we’ve been
watching all day.”

I wish I could help spot these birds!

Why are they so hard to see? Believe it or not, they can
remain in flight for up to 10 months at a time (and I thought I
had a lot of energy!)

They're also very small and black, and hide from sight by
nesting in small crevices around waterfalls. Since they nest very
late in the summer, researchers are finding that waterfalls that
used to flow year-round are slowing to a trickle, reducing some
of their habitat.

So finding and counting them when they return to Glacier each
year is an important part of understanding this species.

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