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HADLEY, MA - MAY 3: Andrew French of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge shines a flashlight on some of the potential nesting places for barn swallows that he devised in an area adjacent to the birds' current nesting space at the refuge in Hadley, MA on May 3, 2019. Every spring, they faithfully return. Scores of the small birds with the long, forked tail and dark rump flutter through openings in a dimly lit, dilapidated stable, where they use mud and grass to build a labyrinth of nests. They make up the states largest-known colony of barn swallows, a species in decline in New England and listed as endangered in parts of Canada. And they should be safe here, if anywhere; the abandoned stable, after all, is in a wildlife refuge. But the birds now face eviction by those charged with protecting them - federal wildlife officials. The manager of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge said the 22,500-square-foot building must go, because of the risk it could collapse and damage the refuges main power transformer. (Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)