Bird
Bank Swallow
Riparia riparia
A summer resident that nests in Virginia. Found in all 133 counties and cities, across 19 habitats.
- Here
- Summer and on migration
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 133 counties and cities
- Habitats
- 19

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- Summer and on migration
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 133 counties and cities
- Habitats
- 19
- Habitat models
- Summer
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Virginia 19
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.



Streams, rivers and their banks

Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)
Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.
Depression ponds and limesinks
Shallow ponds in Coastal Plain depressions, such as limesinks and the ponds in some Carolina bays, that rise and fall with the seasons.
Disturbed and introduced wetlands
Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.
Floodplain and bottomland forests
Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.
Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.
Wet, open, peaty mountain wetlands fed by seepage, often with sphagnum moss.
Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.
Cliffs, ledges and rocky summits


Glades, barrens and outcrops on limestone


Forests and open woodlands on dry ridges and slopes, often oak or pine.
Granite and other acidic rock outcrops
Bare or thin-soil rock on granite, gneiss, sandstone, quartzite and similar acidic rock, including granite flatrocks and domes.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Steep, sun-baked slopes of loose shale with sparse oaks and Virginia pine and their own endemic wildflowers. Linked only where the source names shale barrens; calcareous shale stays with the limestone glades.
Other habitats in its models (86)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Virginia.
- Developed, Low Intensity Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Quarries, Mines, Gravel Pits and Oil Wells Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Open Water (Aquaculture) Summer.
- Barren Land Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer.
- Unconsolidated Shore Summer.
- Upper Texas Coast Beach Summer.
- Louisiana Beach Summer.
- Southeast Florida Beach Summer.
- South Florida Shell Hash Beach Summer.
- Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer.
- Southwest Florida Beach Summer.
- Texas Coastal Bend Beach Summer.
- Central Interior Calcareous Cliff and Talus Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Central Interior Acidic Cliff and Talus Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- North-Central Appalachian Circumneutral Cliff and Talus Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Southern Interior Acid Cliff Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Dry Chalk Bluff Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Southern Appalachian Rocky Summit Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Southern Appalachian Granitic Dome Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Black Belt Calcareous Prairie and Woodland - Herbaceous Modifier Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Edwards Plateau Limestone Savanna and Woodland Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Black Belt Calcareous Prairie and Woodland - Woodland Modifier Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Central Interior Highlands Dry Acidic Glade and Barrens Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Northeastern Interior Pine Barrens Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Florida Peninsula Inland Scrub Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Tamaulipan Mixed Deciduous Thornscrub Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Tamaulipan Mesquite Upland Scrub Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Tamaulipan Calcareous Thornscrub Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- North-Central Interior Oak Savanna Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- North-Central Oak Barrens Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Southern Piedmont Glade and Barrens Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Nashville Basin Limestone Glade Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Central Appalachian Alkaline Glade and Woodland Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Central Interior Highlands Calcareous Glade and Barrens Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer.
- Eastern Highland Rim Prairie and Barrens - Dry Modifier Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Central Mixedgrass Prairie Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- North-Central Interior Sand and Gravel Tallgrass Prairie Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Arkansas Valley Prairie and Woodland Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Central Tallgrass Prairie Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Southern Blackland Tallgrass Prairie Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Southeastern Great Plains Tallgrass Prairie Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Florida Dry Prairie Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Calcareous Prairie Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Calcareous Prairie Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Prairie and Woodland Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland Summer.
- Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer.
- Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer.
- Central and Upper Texas Coast Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer.
- Harvested Forest - Grass/Forb Regeneration Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Recently Burned Grassland Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Recently Burned Shrubland Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Forbland Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Annual Grassland Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Perennial Grassland Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Modified/Managed Southern Tall Grassland Summer, only within 250 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Summer.
- Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer.
- Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer.
- South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Summer.
- Central Interior and Appalachian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems Summer.
- Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Summer.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.
- Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer.
- South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Summer.
- Texas Saline Coastal Prairie Summer.
- Eastern Great Plains Wet Meadow, Prairie, and Marsh Summer.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer.
- South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Summer.
- South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Summer.
- Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.
- Cumberland Riverscour Summer.
- Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Slough Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier Summer, only within 250 m of water.
Seasons in Virginia
- Migratory: does not nest here, in 127 of 133 counties and cities.
- Summer: nests here, in 32 of 133 counties and cities.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 742
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Virginia. Shared habitat, not food.
- Poverty OatgrassDanthonia spicata
- Virginia PinePinus virginiana
- Red MapleAcer rubrum
- SwitchgrassPanicum virgatum
- Wavy HairgrassAvenella flexuosa
- White AshFraxinus americana
- Mountain LaurelKalmia latifolia
- Chestnut OakQuercus montana
- Cliff StonecropSedum glaucophyllum
- Eastern ColumbineAquilegia canadensis
- Bradley's SpleenwortAsplenium bradleyi
- Rock HarlequinCapnoides sempervirens
- Pennsylvania SedgeCarex pensylvanica
- Common HackberryCeltis occidentalis
- Black HuckleberryGaylussacia baccata
- Smooth HydrangeaHydrangea arborescens
- Rice CutgrassLeersia oryzoides
- Marsh SeedboxLudwigia palustris
- Common WaxmyrtleMorella cerifera
- Dotted SmartweedPersicaria punctata
- Common Rockcap FernPolypodium virginianum
- Sun-facing ConeflowerRudbeckia heliopsidis
- Rock SpikemossSelaginella rupestris
- Hillside BlueberryVaccinium pallidum
Wildlife 264
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Virginia. Not sighting records.
- Northern WaterthrushSeiurus noveboracensis
- Purple SandpiperCalidris maritima
- Red-breasted NuthatchSitta canadensis
- SanderlingCalidris alba
- Sandwich TernThalasseus sandvicensis
- Scarlet TanagerPiranga olivacea
- Seaside SparrowAmmodramus maritimus
- Snowy OwlBubo scandiacus
- Thayer's GullLarus thayeri
- Vesper SparrowPooecetes gramineus
- White-winged CrossbillLoxia leucoptera
- Wilson's WarblerWilsonia pusilla
- Worm-eating WarblerHelmitheros vermivorum
- Barred OwlStrix varia
- Black-throated Blue WarblerDendroica caerulescens
- Black-throated Green WarblerDendroica virens
- BobolinkDolichonyx oryzivorus
- Cerulean WarblerDendroica cerulea
- DovekieAlle alle
- Evening GrosbeakCoccothraustes vespertinus
- Louisiana WaterthrushSeiurus motacilla
- Marbled GodwitLimosa fedoa
- Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed SparrowAmmodramus caudacutus
- Short-billed DowitcherLimnodromus griseus
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP summer habitat model for Bank Swallow Elevation up to 2,439 m
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)












































