Watch the Masterful Flight of Tree Swallows: Wild Birds Revealed

Tree Swallows are songbirds built for speed and agility—darting, gliding, and swooping after insects over fields, ponds, and wetlands. But these aerial acrobats have another side: they’re playful, competitive, and clever. In this episode of Wild Birds Revealed, nature photographers Tim and Russell Laman aim to slow down the swallows’ frenetic flight to understand how their wings give them such mastery over the air. Using super slow motion, still photos, and an innovative nest camera, they capture detailed views of the sleek adults and growing nestlings—including one youngster’s first flight. Filmed on location by Tim and Russell Laman in Massachusetts, for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Wild Birds Revealed - a series exploring the hidden lives of familiar birds.