Comment by zokier
7 days ago
While swallows are definitely cool birbs, I would be very surprised if they had any noticeable effect on mosquito populations. There is even one study proposing that swallows attract more mosquitos!
https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/39/1/115/879132
choice quote:
> Cliff swallows occasionally eat mosquitoes (Brown and Brown 1996), but they represent an insignificant part of the diet
https://www.mosquitoalert.com/en/depredadores_naturales_de_l...
Well, these are barn swallows. They eat up to 1,000 insects per day, and up to 100 mosquitos per day (link below). We have at least a dozen, so perhaps 1,200 mozzie per evening (I hope). I think barn swallows are the most populous bird species. Again they are pretty cool. We also have lots of bats, but they are harder to track. HTH, RF.
https://worldwidebirder.com/what-do-barn-swallows-eat