Yep, out of all the places in this northern Taiwan town of Sanzhi 三芝 for swallows to choose to gather for their nightly rendezvous, they choose the main intersection right in the centre of town, where life goes on more or less non-stop 24/7 – this was the scene there last night!

In the evenings there’s a shop selling fried chicken right here under these lights, and next door is a breakfast shop, so there’s not many hours when people aren’t lining up right here to buy something!

Swallows are regarded as auspicious birds in Taiwan and people go to great lengths to help swallows make and keep a nest – even in the most inconvenient of places, like right above the main entrance to their house….

These are barn swallows ~ check out this article in Taiwan Today and it explains why we see them all year round – some nest here and migrate south for winter, others nest in Japan and further north and spend winter here, and others are just passing through….

Pretty amazing eh?  And in fact, just across this road junction is a central reservation of trees which hosts a roost of birds that look a bit like a starling, there are thousands of them flying in there at night – and the noise is deafening!