page_title: San Juan Capistrano, California
section_title: The Cliff Swallows of Capistrano
hierarchical_section_title: San Juan Capistrano, California / The Cliff Swallows of Capistrano
caption_attribution_description: English: Basilica San Juan Capistrano, California, United States.
context_page_description: San Juan Capistrano is a city in Orange County, California, United States. The current Office of Management and Budget metropolitan designation for San Juan Capistrano and the Orange County area is Santa Ana–Anaheim–Irvine, CA. The population was 34,593 at the 2010 census, up from 33,826 at the 2000 census.
context_section_description: San Juan Capistrano is also known for its cliff swallows. The protected birds return during migration, which originates in the town of Goya, Argentina, around St. Joseph's Day (March 19) each year. The day is celebrated by the city's annual Swallows' Day Parade and other festive events.  The swallows leave around October 23, the former feast day of St. John of Capistrano. The 1940 hit song "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano", written by Leon René, is a love song inspired by this annual event.
  From 2009 to 2017, the famous swallows did not return to San Juan Capistrano. They instead began migrating to and nesting in the Chino Hills of Southern California, north of San Juan Capistrano. They built their mud nests in the eaves of the Vellano Country Club, situated around a golf course in the Chino Hills just north of the Chino Hills State Park. Mission San Juan Capistrano officials stated that the swallows changed their route because the mission is no longer the tallest building in the area due to urban sprawl, and thus stopped attracting the swallows for nesting.
  Realizing the city's famous birds were no longer returning home, members of the Mission San Juan Capistrano enlisted the help of Dr. Charles R. Brown, a cliff swallows specialist from the University of Tulsa. In 2012, the first phase of a two-step process began, where the sounds and calls of the cliff swallows were played throughout the mission to lure the birds back home. In 2015, the project continued with the second phase where a replica wall of man-made colonies was built to give the birds a nest to return to. The nests were built to be very similar to the original nests made in the mission, prior to the early 1900s re-stabilization. As of summer of 2017, the cliff swallows have returned home to Mission San Juan Capistrano and are still celebrated each year at the town's annual Swallows Day Parade and Mercado Street Fair.
  In 2018, the town celebrated its 80th annual Swallows Day Parade and Mercado Street Fair put on by the San Juan Capistrano Fiesta Association. The parade is the end celebration of a three-month Fiesta de las Golondrinas where the town puts on events to commemorate the migration home of the songbirds. The parade shuts down a portion of the downtown area to make way for floats, horses, and people walking in the parade. The event holds the title of being the longest-running and largest non-motorized parade west of the Mississippi.
  In 2020, the Mission canceled its annual celebration due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
caption: The 85-foot (26 m) high main rotunda and 104-foot (32 m) bell tower make Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano the tallest building in town. Designed "in the spirit and likeness" of the "Great Stone Church," which is in ruins in the Mission. Pope John Paul II conferred the rank of Minor Basilica to this facility on February 14, 2000.
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