Photo @ladzinski / A lightning fast #CliffSwallow, flying low on the surface of a pond catching insects with ease. (Swipe through the carrousel to see more Cliff Swallow and #BarnSwallow pics) These colorful birds are extremely efficient hunters, feeding primarily on flying insects and small bugs, even in water. They thrive in human populated areas, hunting and nesting affectively on man made structures like bridges, barns, houses and buildings. Barn Swallows are wide spread, found throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas and are quite commonly seen. I shot these photos over the course of a couple of hours crouched in an icy pond, soaking wet and holding position near my home in #Boulder Colorado. My feeble attempts to stay warm and dry we're quickly overshadowed through the sheer entertainment of trying to keep these birds in focus while they hunted!

A post shared by National Geographic (@natgeo) on Jun 6, 2017 at 9:07am PDT