Editing Welcome swallow (section)

===Food and feeding===
These birds are extremely agile fliers, which feed on [[insect]]s while in flight. They often fly fast and low to the ground on open fields in large circles or figure eight patterns. They will often swoop around animals or people in the open. Males and females tend to forage together during breeding season even with fledglings within the nest.<ref name="Tarburton"/> Welcome swallows do show a habit of drinking water while flying, they do this by scooping water within their bills from lake and pond surfaces.<ref name=nzbirdsonline/> This is because welcome swallows need to drink water frequently, which allows them to catch insects in the water as well.<ref name=nzbirdsonline/> Welcome swallows can also cooperate with other birds or companions to drive the insects together.<ref name=EOL/> They can remember the insects’ activity routines to make foraging more efficient.

It has been found welcome swallows have slow growing wings that are not affected by food intake unless they are starving. This suggests that the welcome swallow prioritizes wing growth even when fasting for up to six hours at a time.<ref name="Ashton">{{cite journal |last1=Ashton |first1=J |last2=Armstrong |first2=D |year=2002 |title=Facultative prioritization of wing growth in the Welcome Swallow ''Hirundo neoxena'' |journal=Ibis |volume=144 |issue=3 |pages=470–477 |doi=10.1046/j.1474-919X.2002.00077.x}}</ref> It is also believed that the swallow accumulates fat in order to survive time periods when food is scarce or conditions are bad. This method allows rapid growth when conditions are good and stable growth when conditions are bad.<ref name="Ashton" />