El swift They are regularly found in urban centers, flying tirelessly at high speed, spending most of their life in the sky, except in the chick-rearing stage. These birds can sleep while flying and also when they are in their nest, learn more about them, right here!
¿What is the Swift?
El swift it is a type of apodiform bird, which means that it does not have legs or these are very short and with small feathers, with very strong claws, this can be considered a quality or a defect depending on the perception, and these birds do not need their legs since they spend their whole lives flying. This bird is the only species in Europe that lives in territories that are considered very cold.
They have a short, flat beak and a wide mouth, very wide wings that are dark in color, but the area of their throat is white, on the other hand, they have a short and forked tail, they are very fast and can reach 100 kilometers per hour. They feed on insects, spending most of their time looking for them while flying, so these birds can spend their entire life cycle flying, except when they go to nest.
If this bird falls to the ground, it will be extremely difficult for it to fly again, this is because its legs are very small and do not help it to propel itself, however, when they are in the adult stage they have more physical abilities to take flight. again, as long as they have the necessary conditions to do so, such as a spacious place to be able to take off.
The plumage of swift appears more worn or a little lighter than in the rest of the birds, the swifts young are very similar to adults, although they are a little darker and seem to have scales due to the white tones of their feathers, in both sexes they are the same and are mostly seen flying in groups, with the quality of sunlight, the background and the distance defining their appearance, being able to confuse them frequently.
Types of Swift
In Europe there are three Types of birds of this species, which are the common swift or Apus Apus, the pale swift or Apus Pallidus, and the royal swift or Tachymarptis Melba. However, the existence of two other species from Africa in the Iberian Peninsula is becoming more and more common, although perhaps the reason is due to climate change, and the species that are the Moorish Swift or Apus Affinis and the Cape Swift or Apus Caffer.
The common swift or Apus Apus, has various qualities that differentiate it from the others, since they are nomadic birds that are raised in the spring season in the European region, they spend the winter season under the Sahara, these are similar to swallows, but the swift is smaller, flies higher and has completely black or very dark plumage.
Trill or Song
These Flying animals they have a peculiar trill, since when they are in flight they produce short, uniform and very sharp sounds, in this case the male and the female differ because they emit different sounds, for example; in females it is something like “suiií” and in males it would be something like “sriii”, which when sounded together can be easily identified as the characteristic song of these birds and is what differentiates the apus apus of the other species.
How Do Swift Birds Fly?
These birds fly almost all their lives and that is one of the most outstanding qualities of the swifts currents, which last approximately 9 to 10 months of continuous flight, it is incredible how these birds feed, sleep and mate while they are flying, they only go to their nest to hatch and feed their children, so that the cycle continues repeat and when the time comes, the hatchlings leave the nest and never come back.
Every July, the swifts Common juveniles leave their European refuges to migrate to West and Central Africa, then return in June, spending the intervening 10 months almost continuously in the air. They may travel to Africa, but their legs will never touch African soil.
In reference to this, the apus apus they are among nature's greatest aeronauts, superbly adapted to spend much of their lives in the sky.
Food and Habits
The swifts They feed on large quantities of insects that they can find in the anthills of the different places where they fly. The young swift on average they can eat up to 600 insects in the same day and they are mostly the parents who hunt food for the young while they are in flight, it is the same for the children who only have to open their big mouth and eat.
Another really impressive quality of these birds is that they can sleep while they are flying and they do this by rising above the clouds, approximately more than 2 thousand meters high and in this way they also avoid any danger that may lie in wait for them.
Breeding of the Swift
When the end of April and the beginning of May arrive, it is when you can hear the song of the swift current in European territory, which means that these birds have come from Africa to begin the search for their food and to collect the necessary components to build their nest. They also descend into the water to quench their thirst in a maneuver they perform without even getting wet.
Courtship
First of all, the males arrive with a partner and they are in charge of making a tour of the area, to make sure that the place remains calm and safe. Then they look for their old nest and even fight it out with males who are looking for their first nesting place, but these are birds that are faithful to their first nest and can spend many years in that same space.
La reproduction in birds swift It is monogamous, which means that in their entire lives they only have one partner and they reproduce only once a year, which occurs in the summer. When they are in their nest ready for gestation, they lay 2 to 3 eggs, which can weigh between 3 to 4 grams.
For their incubation they spend 19 to 21 days and the young leave the nest approximately 60 days after birth, they leave the nest at once and do not return, they reach sexual maturity when they are 2 years old. .
The swifts They make their nests anywhere they see available, alone and quiet, such as holes in walls, roofs, empty places and cracks, it is for this reason that they are not always seen with the naked eye. They are in charge of conditioning their nests with different types of materials that they get, such as feathers, dry straw, wisps and small scraps of cloth that they manage to get in flight.
These birds defend their nests very well from other swifts unmarried and intruders, the male will defend it against other males and females alike. Melee fights can last for hours and take place inside or outside the nest hole, even on the ground in the street.
After the male makes the tour of the nest area, he occupies it and that is when the female arrives, and despite the fact that they have the same partner for life, the male and female each migrated separately to Africa and for They haven't seen each other for approximately 8 months, however, when they meet again they have to recognize each other and fall in love again.
When they are alone in the darkness of their nest, they begin to emit sounds of recognition that only they as a couple recognize and that is when the infatuation begins again, they court and groom each other at the same time, and then begin their games of fluttering and flirting, where they chase each other throughout the colony.
Development and Breeding of Swift
El swift It is a bird that lives collectively, that is to say, in colonies of birds that have up to 30 nests that are always inhabited by the same couples of years, however, in these you can also find young swifts that are also in defense of that territory with the intention of conserving these spaces that have been abandoned, to nest in them.
When they are in the first two springs of life, swifts they are very determining, since it is this moment in which there is a greater probability of mortality, although after they pass that stage, they can have a life of between 11 and 21 years.
In the development of these birds in the juvenile stage, the organs that develop first and those that reach the indicated weight are the liver, kidneys and intestines, while the muscular and skeletal system still lacks time to form, their feathers are the ones that more delay in completing its stage of development, the latter ends the total growth process of the bird and the period in which they remain in the nest.
The development of swifts young has a lot to do with the environmental temperature of the place where their nest is located, since if the climate is cold or there is bad weather in the areas where the nest is located, then the existence of insects and any type of food they need is reduced these birds, which is essential for them to have a good growth.
How to take care of an injured Swift?
When this bird falls to the ground, it is very difficult for it to take flight again, for this reason it is that if you find one of these little animals on your way, then we recommend that you help it so that it is not in any danger.
The first thing you should do is check the state of its wings and see if it can fly, you just have to gently push it to take flight, if not, it may be that it is injured or weakened, the best advice may be to take it to a veterinarian , with the intention that he check it and make a diagnosis of the state of the animal, together with the indications of care, and then feed it and that it can return to its natural way of life.
While the bird recovers, it is advisable to take it home and follow the following instructions given by the group for the rehabilitation of native fauna and their habitat, in order to protect and care for them properly:
- Place it in a cardboard or plastic box, which measures between 30 centimeters wide x 20 centimeters long, that the container is very clean and in good condition. This area should be dark and quiet, with a very pleasant and warm atmosphere.
- You can quench your thirst with a little sugar water, you just have to place it in a small container and place it near the bird, little by little it will consume one drop at a time.
- The ideal food for them are insects, so if it is easy to get a good amount of these, we recommend feeding them this way. In the case of not having insects within your reach, then we recommend giving them some of the cat or dog food as a temporary resource
Are Swifts Swallows?
Although perhaps these birds are somewhat similar to the Golondrinas, it must be made clear that they are not the same species and do not even belong to the same family, however the resemblance that we can find between both species is only due to a process called evolutionary convergence, which means that at Despite not being a family, their way of life is very similar in many aspects.
The latter means that they tend to face difficulties in order to survive, and that the decisions they make to solve them are very similar, it is for them that it is normal to confuse both species, since the swift and the swallow have similar lifestyles, as in the fact that they hunt insects and make long migrations, so they have developed a very similar external appearance.
Threats to the Swift
In the course of their lives, these birds have to face many dangers, because during their migrations they have to cross extremely dangerous mountain ranges or hot deserts, and while this happens it is normal for the bird to stop feeding for several days.
However, the greatest danger that these species must face are human beings, since when they fly while they sleep they are exposed to the danger posed by airplanes, in addition to the construction of buildings and the expansion of urban areas, depriving these animals of the possibility to find holes or available spaces to build their nests.
Great jump of young Swifts
Around the middle of July, the parents swifts they stop giving food to their young and they, who are motivated by hunger, get as close as they can to the hole through which their parents used to arrive with food and stay there waiting for their food, until they can no longer stand the hungry, so they decide to lose their fear and take flight.
This means that this is their first flight, to then leave and not return again, that is why most of these undertake their journey until they find their own place to make a nest, from then on they only care about their food, travel Far and fast towards those places they are so drawn to, they instinctively move to a place they have never been, but which turns out to be one more stop on their journey.
When they decide to make this trip, it only takes a few days to reach the southern part of Europe and nothing prevents them from crossing the Mediterranean Sea, then they move over the Sahara desert and continue to the center or south of the African territory. When the swifts they are young, they will take approximately two years to return to Europe, and they do not do so until the right moment arrives, when the instinct is present and it is time to reproduce, thus the cycle of life begins again.
The existence of swifts It is essential in nature, since this migratory bird can kill a large number of insects, flies, mosquitoes and aphids, so they become a very effective insecticide in pest control and help prevent the transmission of diseases. In addition, there is also the fact that these birds are extremely clean and do not bring any kind of dirt to the places where they fly.