Residents Hard To Swallow Home’s Freshly Painted Walls Turn Out To Be Too Attractive

Hundreds of cliff swallows have descended on Randy O’Callaghan’s home, building nests and splattering its freshly painted walls as quickly as he can spray them off.

The swallows flew in Sunday in a scene reminiscent of the movie “The Birds.” Idaho Department of Fish and Game employees and Washington State University veterinarians are searching for explanations.

“This is a real mystery,” said Erik Stauber, professor of veterinary medicine and head of the exotic animal ward at Washington State.

Stauber said he assumes the birds’ original nesting site has been destroyed, forcing them to find new shelter. Since it is the swallows’ breeding season, they have a sense of urgency in setting up new homes for laying their eggs.

“The house must have been at least attractive enough for them to try it,” Stauber said.

Cliff swallows are colony nesters and make their homes in cliffs, as their name suggests. Every spring they return from their winter homes in South America to nest in Idaho.

Textured walls, such as those of O’Callaghan’s two-story house, provide a good surface to which to attach their mud nests.

Stauber and Fish and Game conservation officers have suggested placing netting around the eaves of the house so the birds cannot reach the sheltered nooks. Fish and Game’s initial suggestion was to grease the house just northeast of Kendrick with vegetable oil to keep the nests from sticking.

No one involved thinks the new paint has anything to do with the swallow siege, even though the birds have nested on the freshly painted house and a separate structure that also was painted while ignoring a third structure near the house that was not painted.

In the meantime, O’Callaghan has been hosing down the slate-gray house every night to dislodge the nests and dissuade the birds from becoming permanent residents.