Violet-green Swallow

About the Violet-green Swallow

The Violet-green Swallow is the hummingbird of the swallow family, flashing emerald green and amethyst violet when the sun catches its back. The clean white face wrapping up around the eye and white flank patches that nearly meet over the tail separate it from the look-alike Tree Swallow.

It is a westerner, nesting in tree cavities and cliff crevices in mountain country. In Texas that means the Trans-Pecos, where flocks swirl around the peaks and canyons of the Davis and Guadalupe Mountains.

These photographs were taken at Fort Davis on a June evening, as a flock wheeled overhead flashing green and violet in the sun.