Okay, so it’s kind of silly, but kind of fun too.  Today is the first day of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s March Migration Madness. Sixteen birds. Eight match-ups in this round. And, a really cool set of brackets, just like the basketball tournament.

Today it’s the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) versus the tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor).

Photo Credit: JayMilesPhotography via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: Kelly Colgan Azar via Compfight cc

I’m rooting for the barn swallow–the home team.  Some of the blue and rust colored birds spend the summer in New Mexico and raise their young here; tree swallows just pass through on their migration.

A few years ago I spotted my first barn swallows at a rest area on the west side of  I25, south of the Colorado border.  They had built their mud nests in the corners of the covered porch, or portal, of the little stucco-covered building.  The adults were flitting back and forth between the field and nest, catching insects on the fly to feed the hungry baby birds.  The travelers and swallows scarcely seemed to notice each other.

Tomorrow’s match-up: the yellow warbler versus the rusty blackbird.