>One of our library patrons wrote the following note:
>
>"Could you find where the green backed swallows of the Clackamas [River] go
>after they fledge their young in the late spring?"
>
>We would welcome educated guesses, if not the exact locations for both the
>TREE SWALLOW (T. bicolor) and the VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW (T. thalessina). Is
>there is a good book that would answer this question? Thanks for any help
>you can send us.
>
>Beth McKinnon

I don't believe there's any way we can say where the Clackamas River
swallows go. There's still not enough information in the literature to
answer such questions. Western Tree Swallows winter from the southern edge
of the U.S. south to southern Mexico, while wintering populations, perhaps
of eastern origin, can be found all the way down to Costa Rica and the
larger West Indian islands.

Violet-green Swallows winter mostly in Mexico, but north to southern
California and south to Honduras.

This information comes from the 1983 AOU Check-list of North American birds
and the accounts of these 2 species in the Birds of North America series
(which has range maps).

If someone were really concerned about specific origins, they'd check with
the Bird Banding Laboratory for all banding recovery records along the west
coast for these 2 species. There might be data, although there was no
mention of any such thing in the BNA accounts.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416