Swift bird (photo): The fastest flyer on earth. swift birds
Not only on earth, in water, but also in the sky, there are a huge number of living beings. Every day millions in the most different corners earth. With the help of wings, they sometimes manage to overcome rather big distances.
Their skill in navigation is still not entirely understood by man. There are large predators among birds, there are heralds of spring, and also those who are not afraid of the cold frosts of the Arctic, there are incredibly beautiful birds, which are often compared with fabulous creatures. Who is the fastest flyer on this list? This place is undoubtedly occupied swift birds.
Features and habitat
Swifts belong to swift-shaped. His appearance they are very similar to the swallow, but these are only external signs. In all other respects they are completely different. Swifts are much larger in size and they practically do not sit on the ground.
This bird needs the sky, air, free space. It is possible to meet them literally in any corner of the earth's planet. They are absent only in Antarctica and places close to it due to the too cold climate.
There are a lot of species in the swift family, which are united by one common feature- The ability to fly fast. In fact, swift birds are champions in flight speed. Sometimes it reaches them up to 170 km / h.
High speed in flight is a vital necessity of these . This is the only way they can survive. Swifts descend to the ground in extremely rare cases, because it is there that they are threatened great danger from many predators.
Swifts absolutely do not know how to walk and swim, like many of their other feathered counterparts. For this, swifts have too short legs with sharp claws. In flight, you can say their whole life passes.
They drink, eat, look for building materials for their dwellings, and mate in flight. It cannot be said that swifts have perfect maneuverability, but the fact that they are the fastest of all is a fact.
Swifts were endowed by nature with pointed wings, resembling a sickle in flight. Not too big feathered tail bifurcates at the end. The black beak of the swift is inconspicuous, small in size. The body length of the feathered is about 18 cm, its weight is not more than 110 g. The span of pointed wings reaches 40 cm.
Black swift
The color of the feathers of the swift is black-brown tones, shimmering in the sun's rays with green colors. In general, we can say that the nondescript plumage of the swift makes it less noticeable, which helps it survive. The chest of the swift is decorated with a spot of light gray, which is visible only up close.
As for the distinguishing features of females from males, they practically do not exist. They are completely different in color. So you can only distinguish young chicks from more mature ones.
Juveniles are usually grey. The older the swift becomes, the more saturated its plumage becomes. Each feather of a young chick is framed by a light border, which makes the whole color much lighter. Swift has large eyes, they are an excellent and indispensable assistant in search of provisions.
Bird black swift is one of the most known species swifts. They master the art of self-take-off from the ground, which is a great achievement for swifts.
They do this by jumping. Listen to the voice of the black swift pure pleasure. In females, the tone is usually high, in males, on the contrary. In a flock, this sounds unusual and original.
If considered carefully photo, swift very much like a dove. Therefore, they are often confused. Birds differ in that the dove descends to the ground and can walk freely on it.
Swift is impossible to notice in the area of the first floors. Most often it is noticeable at the height of the last floors of a high-rise building. It is the swifts who often inform us with their voice about the arrival of spring.
Many are concerned about the question - swift migrant or not? Yes, it is not difficult for these dashing raiders to travel long distances. They often change their location.
A large number of them can be found in Siberia, Finland, Spain, Norway. There are many swifts in the warm regions of Turkey, Lebanon, Algeria, and Israel. They also nest in Europe and Asia. From colder regions they fly to wintering in.
Character and lifestyle
These birds prefer to live in colonies. This lifestyle helps them keep everything under control, observe the changes around them and escape from possible danger in time.
Swifts have a great dependence on the surrounding natural factors, climate and temperature conditions. The favorite occupation of swifts, if they are not in flight, is their sitting on sheer rocks, for which they skillfully cling to sharp claws.
For a swift, good nutrition is important. If they have problems with food, which happens especially often during the cold season, swifts seem to turn on the reduced consumption of their “battery”. In other words, they become less active, as if in a mysterious stupor. This helps the bird to expend energy much less than usual.
This state can last up to several days, before the onset of better weather conditions and the opportunity to get food. It is also typical for small chicks.
But they have another reason for it. In this way, babies can wait for their parents to hunt. The waiting time may be about 9 days. In total, swifts are active from early morning until evening.
Swifts have been migrating for wintering to warmer climes since August. Although it is impossible to determine the exact time on this occasion, it all depends on the weather. If, in general, the weather conditions of the swifts are completely satisfied, the migration may be completely postponed.
Therefore, about some swifts, we can say that they are sedentary. Such sedentary swifts are especially lacking in large cities, where the air temperature is usually higher than in the forest or steppe, for example.
Swift chick
By description bird swift has a fiery personality. They cannot be called cunning or cautious. These big bullies have been seen more than once by the instigators of a fight in their own circle or with other birds.
Often these fights are quite serious. At such moments, swifts forget about any caution and completely indulge in "war". In flight, swifts practically do not interfere or threaten anything. The only one that the swift should be afraid of at the same time is the falcon.
Nutrition
The diet of swifts is made up exclusively of insects. They catch them with their mouth, resembling a net. The throat of a swift can accumulate a very large number of insects. Therefore, these birds are considered excellent helpers in the fight against harmful insects.
The change of residence of this bird may depend on the availability of food in the habitat. As soon as there are fewer insects due to weather conditions, swifts change their place of residence.
Reproduction and lifespan
Puberty of these birds is observed after the first year of life. They become parents after 3 years of life. They actively reproduce for two years after that. The male is looking for his female right in the air. Mating takes place there, and only after that the birds begin to nest.
To do this, they choose places in the rocks and on the banks. City swifts nest comfortably under balconies or roofs. It costs nothing for these bullies to drive smaller birds from their nest.
An important condition for the construction of nests is the height, they must be located at least 3 meters. After the nest is ready, the females lay 2-3 eggs in it. Hatching them lasts 16-22 days. Cold conditions may increase timing.
Chicks appear one after another with an interval of a day. The first-born is considered the most enduring. The rest do not always cope with the weather conditions and die. Both parents feed the ever-hungry chicks. After 40 days of life, the chicks become independent. Live 20 years.
The black swift is an inconspicuous, at first glance, bird. But under the dark plumage hides a true master of flight, who perfectly adapted to the neighborhood with a person and learned how to build a nest in a metropolis. At the same time, the life expectancy of a lover of swift turns breaks records among urban birds.
Body length of a black swift does not exceed 20 centimeters. But the span of sharp wings reaches 40 centimeters. Body weight 40-50 grams. The tail of the bird, like that of the swallow, is forked. Although this is the only similarity.
It differs from other species of black swift by its characteristic color. Feathers have a dark brown color with a slight metallic sheen and a thin white rim. Under the beak is a light rounded spot. Ticks can live on the body.
Juveniles have slightly lighter feathers.. It is impossible to distinguish a male from a female by color. But their voices are different.
On the paws of the bird there is no opposed finger, all 4 are directed in one direction. The claws are sharp and very tenacious. Thanks to this structure, the swift keeps perfectly on sheer surfaces, for example, the walls of buildings, but it cannot walk on the ground.
The bird's beak is weak, short with a wide base. This structure allows you to open your mouth wide.
Gallery: black swift (25 photos)
Nutrition and behavioral patterns
The swift bird feeds on the fly. Opening his mouth, he goes to a cluster of insects and fills his beak. With the help of the secret of the sublingual glands, it glues the prey into a lump. Then he swallows it or takes it to the chicks. In search of food, the swift is able to fly tens of kilometers. In inclement weather forced to remain hungry. The basis of the diet is:
- mosquitoes;
- winged ants;
- flies.
Swifts also drink on the fly. To do this, they descend to the surface of the reservoir and scoop up the liquid with an open beak.
Birds are most active during the day, especially during the breeding season. Black swifts live in noisy colonies and form pairs for many years.
In nature, they prefer to settle in the mountains. It is much easier for them to rise into the air by rushing down a cliff. However, they perfectly adapted to the neighborhood with human dwellings. Instead of rocks, they choose skyscrapers and towers. A nest is built to breed offspring. In search of a convenient place, they show aggression towards competitors: sparrows, starlings and survive them from the territory. Clashes are also possible between relatives for the female.
Swift life span averages 10 years. However, in individual cases may reach 15–20 years.
Nest building and breeding
Swifts are migratory birds. They are able to cover huge distances without stopping. Winter is brought in southern Africa. In spring and summer they return to Europe and Asia.
The construction process takes about a week. Most often, the swift nest is located in the hollows of trees, between rocks or on the upper floors of buildings, if we are talking about urban birds.
The female lays 2-3 eggs, which the parents incubate in turn. Chicks are born blind, naked and weigh only a few grams, gray fluff gradually appears. In order to feed the offspring, the mother and father go hunting and may be absent for several weeks. Babies in the survival nest have to go into a daze.
All 3 chicks rarely survive. In especially unfavorable years, birds can completely abandon the nest with offspring.
Young individuals become independent after 1.5 months. From that moment, parents lose interest in them. The new generation, together with the colony, flies to Africa in the fall. But it comes back only a few years later, after reaching puberty.
Flight of the black swift
Flight for the swift is not only a way to move. In the air, the bird forages, drinks, collects material for the nest and, more surprisingly, sleeps and has offspring. But on the ground it becomes too vulnerable.
Swift flight speed easily steps over the mark of 100 kilometers per hour. Some sources mention the figure of 250 kilometers per hour. At the same time, the birds literally rush in the air and make sharp turns not only singly, but also in small groups, showing amazing synchronicity. Ornithologists believe that they use a call to coordinate actions.
It's not just the speed that's impressive. The black swift is able to rise into the air to a height of 2-3 kilometers. Airplanes often crash into birds.
Another reason for the death of these birds become wires. The bird does not notice them during the flight. Given the speed, the collision becomes fatal.
Despite these sad facts, the inconspicuous bird is the embodiment of speed. The flight of the swift fascinates with its swiftness and maneuverability. It is able to literally slide in space both horizontally and vertically, catching air currents. It is not for nothing that the name of this bird was chosen for the name of the aerobatics group of the Russian Air Force.
Attention, only TODAY!
Everyone seems to know these birds. In summer, they rush through the air with loud cries, reminiscent of a screech. Swifts can be seen both in cities and outside cities. People are used to swifts, do not pay attention to them and often do not suspect that they see very unusual birds.
Swifts - there are 69 species in the family - look like swallows. But, looking closer, you can easily distinguish them by narrower wings, less maneuverable flight and, of course, speed. Some species of swifts are considered champions among birds in terms of flight speed. (The needle-tailed one develops a speed of up to 170 kilometers, while the fastest swallow makes no more than 70 kilometers per hour.) And among other things, swifts are “children of the air”. Other birds can fly and swim, walk and run on the ground. Swifts can only fly - they cannot walk or swim. On the fly, swifts drink and bathe.
This is one feature of the swifts. The other is sudden and significant fluctuations in body temperature. Of course, swifts are warm-blooded animals, there is no doubt about that. But their body temperature, to a greater extent than that of other birds, depends on temperature. environment. Moreover, if the temperature drops too low, the swifts hide in the nest and, as it were, fall into hibernation, stupor.
We are used to seeing swifts in cities. Many even believe that this is a purely urban bird. But swifts can be found in the mountains, and in forests, and in deserts, and on the plains. Nests are made in crevices of rocks or in hollows of trees; they can settle in caves and even in burrows.
The legs of swifts are small, weak, with sharp claws. These birds practically cannot walk on the ground, they can only perch on branches or cling to vertical surfaces with their claws. The swift cannot take off from the ground - the wings hit the ground when flapping. (The black swifts are an exception - they can jump up and take off.) Others, in order to rise into the air, need some kind of springboard, some kind of elevation. Therefore, swifts do everything they need in the air: they catch insects, look for building materials and bedding (fluff, dry blades of grass raised by the wind, and so on).
There is another curious pattern, which was noticed back in 1855 by K. F. Kessler: almost always early arriving birds fly away late in autumn, and those arriving late in spring fly away early, one of the first. For example, swifts arrive with the fourth bird echelon, and are among the first to fly away - in August. Incidentally, this phenomenon for a long time was inexplicable: swifts catch insects in the air, like swallows. It turns out that the whole thing is in vision, or, more precisely, in the structure of the eyes: swallows can see insects flying around and chase them. Swifts do not chase insects - they almost do not see them. They fly with their mouths open and, like a net, capture those they come across on the way. There's a lot of randomness here. And if there are many insects, this percentage is large enough to saturate both adult birds and chicks in the nest. And when there are few insects, then the percentage decreases.
The example of a swift is convincing enough. And the amount of food determines the timing of the arrival and departure of birds. German scientist A. Altum still in mid-nineteenth century, he defined these phenological relationships in this way: "Not a single bird returns before its food appears."
The most widespread and well-known in Europe, Asia, Africa is the black swift. Black swifts live mainly in cities. Black swifts build nests from blades of grass, feathers, leaves, which they collect in the air, on the fly.
In the laying of a black swift there are 2-4 white eggs. Only females incubate it for 18 days. The males feed the hens, who usually stay in a flock: they fly away together for food for the females, return together with the prey (they pick up a mouthful of food, envelop it with saliva, and then carry this lump to the children).
Black Swifts often nest in large colonies, with each pair returning to its nest year after year. The young leave the colonies and usually begin their first nesting in a completely different place.
In bad weather, the chicks fall into a stupor, their body temperature drops to 20 ° (almost twice as compared to normal!), And in this state they can be without food for up to 10-12 days. At this time, adult swifts migrate south for tens of kilometers, leaving children without food.
Spiny-tailed swifts live in sparse, often swampy forests along river valleys, on plains and along mountain slopes, clearings and burnt areas with preserved individual trees. They nest in hollows, often very large: up to three to four meters deep and 35-50 cm in diameter.
IN South-East Asia, swifts of salangana live on the islands of Indonesia and Polynesia. These birds nest in cave colonies, often in total darkness. In caves, they use echolocation, i.e. emit special sounds, and by their reflection from the walls they are oriented in space. However, only those birds that live in caves are capable of echolocation. Those nesting openly do not possess these abilities.
All salangans (and there are about 20 species of them) make their nests from saliva, including pieces of plants, bark, and lichens. These nests are valued, but much less than the nests of the gray salangana - this swift has a clean nest, because the bird makes it exclusively from saliva. Cup-shaped nests glued to a vertical rock, usually in the depths of caves.
These are the same "swallow's nests" from which Chinese chefs cook soup highly valued by gourmets. They say that the soup is really excellent, and the nest itself tastes like sturgeon caviar. However, many do not like this dish - a matter of taste, of course.
In the east of our country and in some other countries, the bulk of the “urban” are white-belted swifts. They are similar both externally and in lifestyle. Those and others, having arrived, immediately begin to build nests. Build a week, a little more. And as soon as the nest is ready, they lay eggs. There are usually two of them. Both parents incubate. The incubation lasts eleven days, but maybe longer - it all depends on the weather. Moreover, it depends on the weather whether swifts will incubate eggs at all, whether chicks will appear at all. We have already said that these birds are very dependent on the weather. During bad weather, there are no insects in the air - the birds are starving, they may even die of starvation. To prevent this from happening, during a long bad weather, the birds hibernate. Or sitting in a nest. But their body temperature at this time becomes so low that there is not enough heat necessary for incubation. And swifts throw eggs out of the nest. As if they know that nothing will come of it.
But if everything goes well, the chicks will appear. And they will sit in the nest. But how much - again depends on the weather. They can spend 33 days in the nest, or maybe 55.
IN good days parents fly to the nest 30-40 times a day, each time bringing a "bag" of food. Since a bird cannot fly with each insect caught, then. she "hoards" them, packs them - wraps them in sticky saliva - and brings them to the chicks. In such a "bag" from 400 to 1500 insects. It is estimated that chicks eat up to 40,000 insects on average per day. But that's on good days.
In rainy and hundreds will not be typed. And parents go to those places where the weather is good, where there is food. Sometimes 60-70 kilometers from the nest. (These are the so-called "weather migrations".) And the chicks cannot fly yet. Parents cannot return with food either. And the shearers “found a way out” - they become numb, as if falling asleep and not wanting to eat. In this state, they can starve for 10 or even 12 days.
But then the good weather comes again, the parents return, the children wake up, and everything goes on as before. Chicks gain weight quickly - on the twentieth day they become almost one and a half times heavier than their parents, then they lose weight, and by the time of departure their weight becomes optimal. And in general, by the time of departure from the nest, the swifts are already quite independent. Having left the nest, they also leave their parents - they no longer need them.
There is another amazing feature of swifts - they can sleep in the air! And not for several minutes, but for several hours, gliding high in the sky, occasionally moving its wings in a dream. In the morning they wake up and go about their usual business - they begin to catch insects.
In our country, there are still white-bellied and small (in Central Asia) and needle-tailed (in the Far East and Siberia).
And in America lives the cayenne swift. It is interesting for its nest. Having caught a sufficient amount of vegetable fluff in the air, the bird sticks it together with saliva and makes a rather long tube out of this material. Having hung it on a bough, the swift glues a pocket on one side of the tube, in its upper part. This is a nesting chamber.
Even more original is the nest of the palm swift, which is widespread in the tropical zone of Asia and Africa. However, this structure can be called a nest with some stretch. It is rather a small pillow glued together from fluff and small feathers and attached to the underside of a palm leaf. Eggs will not lie on such a pillow, and the bird will not sit, especially since the palm leaf hangs almost vertically. Therefore, the swift glues the eggs. And he sits on them, firmly clinging to the pillow with his claws. So he sits until the chicks appear. And the kids, barely born, cling to the pillow with their claws and sit like that until they grow up.
If we talk about the nests of swifts, then we cannot help but recall the clecho, a representative of another family of the detachment - the family of Crested swifts.
They are really crested, but otherwise they are similar to all swifts. Unless sometimes, unlike them, they sit on trees. Crested swifts also build nests in trees, and these are the smallest bird nests in the world (corresponding, of course, to the size of the bird). Swifts make nests on thin bare twigs and lay one single egg in them. Will not fit anymore! It is impossible to incubate in such a nest. Therefore, the female does not sit on the nest, but sits nearby and covers the egg with abdominal feathers. The chick sits in the nest for some time, but soon it becomes crowded there, and it moves to the branch. So he sits on it until he grows up.
The most famous and widespread birds on the planet, which can be found in any corner of it, except for some other islands, are swifts.
Everyone is used to them both in cities and in the suburbs. The presence of these birds no longer surprises anyone. But many people do not even realize how unusual birds they are.
There are 69 species in the swift family. They bear a striking resemblance to . Just looking closely, you can see some differences between them. Swifts have somewhat narrower wings than swallows, birds fly much faster, but make less maneuvers.
Swift bird in flight
These little birds can reach an incredible speed of 170 km / h, in this they are real champions. While the average swallow flies at a speed of 70-80 km / h. characteristic feature Swifts have something that they can only fly.
They are not given the ability to swim and walk, like many other birds. From descriptions of the swift bird it is clear that his paws are too small for this. If the swift is on the ground, it will be difficult for him to take off from there because of the large span of their wings.
In order for them to take off, they need a springboard or hill. Therefore, swifts do a lot in flight. They can look for food in flight, drink, eat, look for building materials for their home, swim and even mate.
Swifts can eat and drink right in flight
On photo swift nothing, it would seem, special can surprise anyone. A small gray bird with black sometimes with white color. Swift 10-12 cm in length, weighing up to 140 grams, with a large head, on which a sharp small beak and black eyes are clearly visible, with a straight tail and long curved wings, small and weak legs.
There are no differences between male and female. Such inconspicuous and inconspicuous birds are actually aces of the airspace. swift birds have distinguishing feature from swallows and other feathered brethren, except for flight speed and maneuvering - swifts do not sit on wires and do not take off from the ground.
Features and habitat of the swift
You can see this wonderful bird in any corner of our planet. You will not meet her only in too cold climatic latitudes. They can settle both in forest zones and in treeless areas.
give their preference big cities and coastal rocks, it is there that it is convenient for them to equip their nests. It feels like they never get tired.
They spend almost all their time in flight, and only a few hours at night they go to sleep. Thanks to the ideal aircraft, they can cover distances of hundreds of kilometers.
The nature and lifestyle of swifts
Among these bird species there are both sedentary and migratory. They prefer to live in packs. Entire colonies can be seen in cities or in the mountains, numbering several thousand pairs of swifts. Their activity does not fall from morning to evening.
Their energy supply is not exhausted. They have a very strong metabolism and, accordingly, an excellent appetite. Birds have excellent sight and hearing.
Swift birds develop a flight speed of up to 160 km / h
An interesting fact is that swifts can sleep in flight and not for a couple of minutes, but for several hours, only occasionally flapping their wings. It should not be noted that this is not a completely peaceful bird, although they live in large families.
They are big bullies and fighters, start frequent quarrels not only with their fellows, but also with other types of birds. It is difficult to call them smart or cunning. Their character is dominated by excessive irascibility, due to which sometimes they can even forget about their safety.
Swifts are very responsive to temperature changes. If after the heat it can suddenly get colder, their thermoregulation cannot cope with this difficult task and the swift hibernates. Bird nests are not built neatly, compared to other birds.
Pictured is a nest of swifts
It is enough for them to demolish building material in one heap and fasten it with their quickly solidifying saliva. Swifts have few enemies due to their fast flight speed. They can only threaten them by catching swifts right on the fly.
Small swift chicks may not appear from the nest for a long time, this can last up to two months. All this time, caring parents take over the issue of feeding their children, bringing food to the kids in their beaks.
Swift nutrition
The main food of swifts are those that fly in the air. From this it follows that the food and life in general of swifts is completely dependent on weather conditions. If, due to the onset of cold weather, insects disappear, swifts also have to change their place of residence.
From hunger, the temperature of these birds drops significantly, this can result in the so-called "trance sleep". Due to this regularity of the body, birds can experience hunger from one to ten days. This helps the little chicks to wait for their parents, who have flown far away in search of food.
Black swift this is one of the types birds, which differs slightly in its size and plumage color. In early May, he flies from warm lands to places he is used to and with loud cries notifies us that spring has finally fully come into its own.
Black swift bird
Most often, black swifts winter in and. Initially, they most of all liked to live on the rocks, but gradually they fell in love with city life and meeting them in the city is no longer a rarity.
Is the swift a migratory bird or not? Often people ask this question. The answer is unequivocal - yes. They are heat loving birds. They do not leave only those regions where the temperature allows them to exist freely and without problems all year round.
Reproduction and lifespan
Every spring, migratory swifts fly to their former places of existence. They surprisingly wonderful memory. They are quickly busy building their nests, because the time for laying eggs is approaching. Basically, swifts lay 2 eggs each.
Pictured is a swift chick
A black swift can have 4 of them. The female incubates them for two to three weeks, all this time the male is looking for food for the two of them. Newborn chicks live dependent on their parents for about 40 days, after which they grow stronger, become independent and leave the nest forever. The life span of these birds is 10-20 years.
Pictures of a swift bird cause only consolation. Especially those depicting chicks and their caring parents nearby. Simultaneous helplessness and such guardianship, which is not typical even for some people, make them treat swifts with respect.
Not in vain for several years swift chose bird of the year. About the swift bird, about its speed, many poems and riddles were composed for the children. Many people know about its existence from early childhood.
Candidate of Biological Sciences K. MIKHAILOV.
You can watch the flight of swifts for hours. But, unfortunately, these amazing birds in the Moscow sky are becoming less and less every year. Please tell us on the pages of the magazine about the life of swifts: what do they build nests from, can they sit on the ground, how do they hatch chicks, what do they eat, where do they drink water in dry weather and where do they winter?
V. Sapozhnikov (Moscow).
By the middle - the end of May, as soon as the really warm "summer" weather sets in, the city blocks are resounded by the shrill cries of long-winged birds flying at high speed over the roofs of houses. These are black swifts that have returned from African wintering. Their appearance marks the beginning of the bird's summer, since most of the birds are already sitting on their nests by this time. They also say that they fly "on the back of a cyclone." True (or false) this statement can be easily verified by everyone in their city. A flock of swifts returns to the places they like for many years in a row. Biologists call this phenomenon philopatry, that is, literally love for the motherland.
The first days of swifts joyfully - you can’t say otherwise - rush over places dear to their hearts, but very soon they start building nests. They arrived late, they need to catch up, and after a couple of weeks two or four oblong-oval white eggs appear in their nests. However, it is difficult to see the nests, as they are located in various kinds of potholes and narrow crevices under the roofs of tall stone buildings. But in the "low" quarters, swifts can also nest low: under the roofs of five-story buildings and even in potholes in the bases of balconies. It is not difficult to attract them to the birdhouse on the balcony, if, of course, a flock of swifts has already chosen your house. Black swifts do not nest in separate pairs in central Russia.
In villages, swifts often occupy birdhouses (by this time the chicks had flown out of the starlings), expelling field sparrows from them. But there are still places, for example, in Transbaikalia and in the Russian North, where swifts continue to nest in forests, arranging nests in old woodpecker hollows made in tall trees, especially pines.
The nest itself, of course, has one name. Just a tray of a stone niche or hollow is lined with fluffs, feathers and tufts of wool, which birds catch on the fly and then stick together with the secretion of the salivary glands. The eggs develop quite quickly, and after 15-18 days blind and naked chicks appear in the nests, which both parents actively feed for more than a month, appearing at the nest with food up to 30 times a day. The grown chicks, having left the nest, immediately begin to fly an independent life. Approximately in the middle - the end of August, adult and young chicks fly south, so that swifts spend about three months in central Russia.
Many people sometimes confuse swifts with swallows. In some ways they are really similar: both are tireless flyers. But nevertheless, swifts can be distinguished at a glance: their wings are crescent-shaped and narrower, and they fly swiftly and directly, not as nimble as swallows; and usually higher. If you ever manage to hold a swift in your hands, then pay attention to its paws. They are small, not at all adapted for walking. Therefore, one of the first scientific names for the swift, translated from Latin, was "legless swallow." Swallows, on the other hand, can walk on the ground and easily take off from flat ground. The swift's beak is also small, but the mouth is wide. This is understandable. Cutting through warm air currents carrying myriads of midges, the swift picks up a mouthful of food, envelops it with saliva, and then flies to the nest with this food lump. Atmospheric pressure affects the distribution of insects in the air. Therefore, like swallows, on sunny fine days, swifts prey on high altitude, and in cloudy weather, it happens that they sweep over the earth itself.
Swifts are excellent flyers (the best among birds) and can fly up to 100 kilometers per hour. On the same day, they fly up to 1500 kilometers. In the air, swifts can sleep, flying at a height in large circles, while in the air they mate. They also drink and swim in the summer. Excellent flight abilities allow swifts to feed, if necessary, many kilometers from nesting sites. And sometimes you have to fly away from the nest for tens of kilometers. Such a need arises during periods of long summer bad weather. If it gets colder and it rains, swifts cannot make up for energy costs for active life. Then the flock migrates to places with better food conditions, leaving the chicks "to the mercy of fate." However, the chicks do not die, as they have an amazing feature: they fall into a stupor, a kind of hibernation, in which they can go without food for up to one and a half to two weeks.
To some extent, this ability is developed in the chicks of many birds, which, in early age(when they are still unfeathered) do not have developed warm-bloodedness. At this time they are still like lizards: their body temperature depends on the temperature of the environment. The body temperature drops - and, accordingly, the metabolism drops. All processes in the body are inhibited, and the chick can do without food for some time. It looks like it is already dead, but when it gets warmer it comes to life. However, in chicks of other birds, the period of "cold stupor" is short, they can starve very a short time. In swifts, it is large, and both small and
grown chicks. Moreover, in severe weather, such as heavy rains, torpor can also cover adult birds - their temperature is still unstable. Such is the strange thermoregulation of these birds, without which, however, they would hardly have survived in northern Russian conditions.
Our black swift is widely distributed. It inhabits all of Europe (except Far North) and the southern part of northern Asia, in the south - to Palestine and the Himalayas. Black swifts winter in southern Africa and Asia.
It remains to be said that swifts are a special order of birds, which are called long-winged. The closest relatives of swifts are hummingbirds living in America, which are sometimes introduced into the same order of long-winged ones. There are 70 species of swifts themselves in the world, most of them are similar to our black swift (tail with a weak fork), but there are also so-called spiny-tailed swifts, in which the tail is cut off at the end, and the tail feathers are hard, the tops of the rods protrude beyond edge of the tail in the form of sharp needles.
The Black Swift is the only species of swift in European Russia, but east of Altai to Kamchatka, Sakhalin and Primorye, the white-striped swift is much more common, in which, as the name suggests, a catchy white stripe is visible on the rump. It is this swift that nests in the cities of Siberia and Far East; the black swift lives in the east only as far as Baikal. In the forests in the south of Siberia and the Far East of Russia, a representative of the needle-tailed swifts also lives. It is called pricklytail or needletail - in different places in different ways.
If you go on vacation to the Crimea or Ciscaucasia, you will surely see a larger (and faster) swift with a white belly. That's what they call him - the white-bellied swift. This is a southerner.
