Every year, cliff swallows migrate thousands of miles from South America to call Moreno Valley College their home for nesting season. 

For over 20 years, MVC biology instructor Joanna Werner-Fraczek has observed the cliff swallows at MVC, but she has seen more this year than the last five years.

“They come in waves. There were three waves this year, but we are not sure if they are three separate colonies,” Werner-Fraczek said.

Committing to the research of these songbirds, the MVC biology department has created the Flying with Swallows project. Phase one of the project was funded by the Community College Undergraduate Research Initiative to better understand the abundance of swallows present on campus during the breeding season. This was examined through a scientific lens. 

According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the cliff swallows’ nesting season is between Feb. 15 and Sept. 1. However, they arrived on campus later than usual this year in mid April. Cliff swallows are philopatric, which means they return to the same nesting site where they were born every year. 

Cliff swallows come to MVC campus and other mission style buildings simply because of how they are built. 

“The stucco has very good adhesion, which allows their nests to stick,” Werner-Fraczek said. 

The FWS project relies on student participation, so students in BIO-61 are currently mapping this year’s colony. Many discoveries about the cliff swallows have been made during the first phase, suggesting they are actually a keystone species.

The cliff swallows build their gourd shaped nests out of mud, along windows and shady ledges, clumped together like apartments. To build them, they need a viable water source nearby. The FWS project observed that they actually get their water from irrigation leaks, rather than an actual lake. 

One issue this year is that one of the irrigation leaks from a building under construction has been fixed. Therefore, students are detecting their new source of mud.

For whatever reason, sometimes hatchlings fall from the nest. 

“The ones that survive can be put in any nest, and they will be taken care of,” Werner-Fraczek said. 

The mother of the hatchling raised in another nest will still recognize their offspring by their specific call.

However, the hatchlings that do not survive still provide valuable information. When the biology students dissected them, they discovered that the cliff swallows’ diet consists mostly of mosquitoes, termites and other unwanted insects. 

The FWS project has also discovered their biggest threats, both internal and external. Their greatest predators are not hawks or owls, but crows. Werner-Fraczek has witnessed the crows target the cliff swallows as they fly into their nests because they are vulnerable in the split second where their wings are closed. 

Along with the threat of predators, there is also the threat of infestation. 

“Each year a few nests will get infected with a parasite similar to bed bugs, but in nests,” Werner-Fraczek said. 

These nests are usually black from the parasitic waste and will stunt the next generation if they survive. To combat the spread of infestations, the MVC facilities team removes them, but only after Sept. 1.

All swallows are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act 1918, and MVC has become a faithful steward by protecting them on campus. Accordingly, the MVC facilities team does not touch the infected nests until the approved time period. 

While they remove the nests that are threats, they also remove almost every nest on campus in order to clean things up. While they help remove parasites from infecting future colonies, they also cause the cliff swallows to have to do a lot more work. 

When it comes to removing healthy nests, “I would leave things to nature,” Werner-Fraczek said.

The cliff swallows have caught the attention of many MVC students, not just biology majors. Sophomore journalism student Luis Serna has likened their importance to the wolves of Yellowstone. 

“Other than just seeing them here, they serve a vital part of the ecosystem. If one animal is affected then the whole ecosystem suffers,” Serna said.

While phase one of the FWS project discovered many things about cliff swallows that were previously unknown, there is still much to learn. Very little is known about their winter lives in South America. They could be from Brazil, Uruguay or Argentina, so phase two of the project was supposed to research their migration back using trackers. 

Although, phase two was denied by the National Science Foundation because they said the cost was too high. In order to track the cliff swallows, they would have to hire a birder. 

The process to become a birder takes three years of training. Along with the cost of hiring a professional, the tracking devices themselves must be less than 3% of the bird’s total body weight, further driving up the cost for such technology. 

The cliff swallows’ nesting process takes about ten to 20 days after they complete their nest, so the next generation is soon to hatch. The parents and their fledglings will remain on the MVC campus through the summer, but will be gone by August. As long as MVC is still standing, the cliff swallows will return like they have for over two decades.