17.7.2017, 22:17

Swift, lying on the pavement 07/15/2017. I feed only maggots and water (which is not recommended to feed swifts).
Appears to be 23 days old, weight 34 grams.

In Veliky Novgorod, is it possible to find shops where you can buy brownie or banana crickets, or ant pupae?

Someone will be able to take him, because it is hard to feed him in 2 hands, he does not want to eat himself.

girlfriend_afoni

18.7.2017, 10:35

And if you take it to where you found it and plant it next to a tree branch, maybe it's just a fledgling?

18.7.2017, 11:04

Strizh is an exception)
All that is possible and necessary has already been read about swifts. Swifts very rarely fall to the ground, because they do not always succeed in taking off.

girlfriend_afoni

18.7.2017, 11:43

So it's understandable, but maybe it's a fledgling that was sitting on a tree and fell

18.7.2017, 11:54

I suppose if you find the tree where he was found and put him on it, then at that very moment the haircut will try to jump to the ground, having received injuries, and he has nothing to do on the ground.
With the nest will come out similarly.
Only if someone doesn't find him again.

girlfriend_afoni

18.7.2017, 13:20

Well, here you have to google what haircuts do at that age

18.7.2017, 13:42

I’ve already googled everything, grow it for another ~20 days, after that it will be ready to fly away, but you need to feed it correctly (i.e. recommended insects for swifts), otherwise feathers will fall out or even worse.
If you let him go, it means let him die, and it didn’t matter whether he picked him up from the asphalt or not (swifts should not be on the ground).

Now I will go around a couple more pet stores, but I’m unlikely to find the right insects.

I wrote here with 2 questions, where to buy crickets and ant pupae.
And maybe someone has experience in our city in overexposure of swifts.

For with the diet that I feed the sheared women will not live long, and it is difficult to feed (to fix the beak), he does not eat.

18.7.2017, 15:39

I went around 4 pet stores, no, and they say that I’m unlikely to find it. Somewhere advised to order from Peter.
The swift has become less active, often sleeping.

girlfriend_afoni

18.7.2017, 15:50

Try to ask this person, he knows everything about birds, maybe he will tell you where to get it or some other way out
https://vk.com/id7337862

Another option is to buy maggots in a fishing store, grind or cut. You can also remove flies from maggots - also a good food.
And in fishing stores, mealworms can be sold.

And to kill hunger - give low-fat cottage cheese for now (real only)

18.7.2017, 16:25

Thank you very much, I'll ask.
I'm trying to get flies out of maggots, and it takes ~ 8 days for this.
Meal worms are a good option, it remains to find where to buy.
Fat-free cottage cheese, you can try to kill hunger, but almost everywhere they write that only insects.

And so the swift of some maggots does not digest, and so they "crawl out" (I break and kill so that they do not move in the stomach).
And at home it's cold for him, he put a warm bottle.

18.7.2017, 16:40

Still preferred as food for insectivorous birds "meal worms", flour beetle larvae (tenebrio molitor), which can be bought at any pet store.

But I must warn you not to feed these worms in large quantities and for a long period of time (more than 2-3 days). Their chitin contains substances that eventually cause serious intoxication of the liver and kidneys. Mealworms are also poorly balanced food, leading to deficiencies and skeletal damage.

When fed solely on mealworms, songbirds develop chronic eye infections that can lead to vision loss and head ulcers, inflammatory swelling of the feet, especially joints, and abscesses.

Mealworms - but only the lightest and softest, freshly molted - can be given to insectivorous birds as a supplement in very limited amounts (i.e. no more than 4-5 per day) or in an emergency for a very short time, two or three days, if it is impossible to immediately acquire crickets.

fly larvae, sold in fishing stores as "white maggot", is completely unsuitable for feeding insectivorous birds.

The chitin of the larvae resembles hard rubber, and the bird's stomach is not able to destroy them, so they come out with excrement almost undigested.
Fly larvae are unacceptable as food even if they are pricked before feeding, as they have a very high fat content, which means an extremely unbalanced diet.

Swifts reared on fly larvae are generally extremely thin and show deficiency symptoms as well as fatal feather defects. Usually these are small, barely noticeable areas of the fan with increased fragility (as if the fan was not completely cut through with a sharp blade), the fly feather breaks in this place at the slightest load.

In short, I kill a bird with such food

18.7.2017, 16:53

Well, is an anthill something - a problem to find?

18.7.2017, 17:23

I can look at the expense of ant pupae, but only at the exit.

I watched the swifts from the balcony as they hunt ordinary mosquitoes. Maybe take a net, catch and feed them?

18.7.2017, 17:41

Mistake 3. Feed the swift with maggots or bloodworms.

Swifts are insectivorous birds. But they are categorically not suitable for maggots and bloodworms, as well as earthworms, beetles, wasps, spiders, caddis flies, and so on.
Maggot is a worm with a very tough skin that is not digested in the stomach of the swift, causes blockage of the intestines, and the swift dies. Even if you cut the maggot into pieces, the risk still remains. In addition, maggot is very fatty and will quickly plant the liver of a swift.
Bloodworm is a low-calorie and contaminated food. Consists of almost nothing but water. You will never feed a swift with a bloodworm if you only feed it to him in kilograms. And the swift will quickly pick up helminths and some kind of infection from the bloodworm. The same goes for earthworms.
Swifts have a very delicate esophagus and stomach; only soft food is digested. In nature, swifts eat flies, moths, mosquitoes.

Mistake 4. Feed the swift with mosquitoes and flies.

People give 4-5 flies or mosquitoes a day (as many as they could catch), and they think that they have fed the swift.
Flies are indeed the natural food of swifts, but a swift in flight eats about 300-400 of them per day. In general, birds actually eat a lot: every day, any bird should eat food = 1/3 of its own weight in volume. That is, a swift with a weight norm of 45 grams should eat 15 grams of food per day. If the swift eats less, he begins to become exhausted, and in a week he dies.

Well, along with the flies, I'm now trying to get the mosquitoes out. And I can't catch a lot of mosquitoes.

Mistake 5. Instead of insects, give swifts "substitutes": cottage cheese, egg, beef.

All these products, which are successfully used in feeding chicks of other species - corvids, passerines, etc. - absolutely not suitable for haircuts. All of them cause metabolic disorders, in swifts the liver and kidneys fail over time, calcium deposition in the tissues begins. The chicks grow crooked feathers, which eventually fall out. The tail of those fed with eggs and cottage cheese is sheared - overgrown, and the wings, on the contrary, are short, undergrown. Such chicks are no longer able to fly, and remain at home for permanent residence.

girlfriend_afoni

18.7.2017, 17:42

If tomorrow we go to the dacha in the evening, I can shake the anthills, there are a lot of them, I’ll bring them on Thurs in the morning. If the bird survives...
Interestingly, but chicks should be given water, adult birds drink

It’s clear about the food above, but everything is better than starving completely, while there is no alternative

Do you often look out the window or look at the sky in the summer, leaving for work early in the morning and returning from work late in the evening from Monday to Friday? In a heap of momentary troubles, constant dissatisfaction with life, resentment, squabbles, health problems, we often do not notice the simplest and most accessible to everyone - the beauty of nature.

I myself was mired in all this, as if blind. Today, with surprise, I noticed flocks of swifts flying right in front of my window and making a piercing squeak. But these birds fly to us in the first half of May, and from South Africa! Our swifts can be observed by semi-wild African tribes, who still use homemade spears for hunting and live in clay shacks. Here is such a hello to them from us and to us from them. For example, Egypt, where many Russians like to relax and where it takes 4-5 hours to fly by plane from Moscow, is only North Africa.

As a child, I had to pick up and bring home the young that had fallen from the nest several times. This happened more often in rainy weather, when the nests became more wet and slippery.

Unfortunately, we have never been able to feed the cubs and after a while they died. But don't despair, we can help!

Common misconceptions

I always thought that swifts cannot take off from the ground, they supposedly need to fall down from a height to fly. Actually, it is not. Adult birds take off perfectly from clear ground, without obstacles in the form of thick grass and other irregularities that can interfere with takeoff. If an adult does not fly away, most likely, there may be health problems.

Another common myth is that if you return a fallen chick to the nest, then the parents will not accept it, as they will smell the person. Even if they accept, they would only find that nest!

How to help?

First of all, check on the Internet if there are specialized rehabilitation centers for birds in your region, where chicks can be provided with qualified assistance. Here are just a few of them:

• "Association of Bird Lovers", St. Petersburg.
• "Green Parrot", Moscow.
• "Birds Without Borders" A. I. Kuindzhi, Ryazan region.
• "Chamomile", Tver region.
• "Phoenix", Kaluga.
• "Smolenskoye Poozerye", Smolensk.
• Simbirsk Wild Bird Rescue Center, Ulyanovsk.

If the center is not nearby, contact the city veterinary clinic or veterinary station.

Initial steps:

1. Determine who you found - a chick or an adult. Babies have white edging on large flight wings, and white specks can be seen on their heads. Chicks are also distinguished by the tubes from which feathers open.
2. Perform a general visual inspection - for visible damage and injuries, if the integrity of the plumage is broken. Carefully inspect the wings and legs. Compare body parts in pairs - they should not differ much. If one wing is lower than the other and dangles uncharacteristically, it is probably broken. A broken foot can also dangle. If a fracture is suspected, only a veterinarian can help. If the bird's keel sticks out noticeably, and there are few muscles around it, then most likely the bird is emaciated and will need to be fattened.
3. If there are no visible injuries, but the swift looks lethargic and inactive, it is also necessary to take it to the veterinarian for testing in order to exclude common infectious diseases. It should be checked for ornithosis, salmonellosis, fungi, bacteria, protozoa, helminths, influenza virus. When dealing with a bird, observe the rules of personal hygiene, wash your hands with soap and water after each contact, especially after cleaning the droppings.
4. A sedentary bird that refuses to eat needs to be warmed up. You can use 40 and 60 W light bulbs located at a distance of about 50 cm from the box (the light should not fall on the swift). Heating pads, hot water bottles are also suitable.
5. Check if the swift is able to eat. To do this, take a small insulin syringe, draw 0.2 ml of warm boiled water from the kettle into it and gently drop 1 drop into the beak, trying to get on the tongue. If the bird swallows at the same time, then the swallowing reflex is preserved. This is a good sign!
6. The haircut should be located in the shade, not in a draft. You can use a box 30 by 40 cm (width, length) and 15-20 cm in height. Lay several layers of toilet paper on the bottom, which will absorb excess moisture. Be sure to build a nest inside the shelter, in a secluded corner. Regular foam will do. Cover the top of the box with cheesecloth. Place a 40-60 W lamp nearby for warming up (the light should not fall on the nest).
7. It is impossible to wash or trim the feathers of the swift. Wipe them gently with a chamomile solution as much as possible.

Feeding rules

Swifts feed on compressed lumps of insects 50-70 times a day. In the early days, you can use baby meat puree, consisting of beef and turkey, as well as low-fat 0% cottage cheese mixed with gammarus and daphnia (available at aquarium stores). Use an insulin syringe for feeding. Feeding frequency 1 time per hour, 0.4 ml of puree at a time.

The simplest and most affordable food is a boiled chicken egg (a mushy protein and only a little), raw chicken fillet, finely chopped to a pate (mix with water to become thin).

Insects in the diet will still have to be added. Suitable maggots (you can buy in stores for fishermen), drones, crickets, ant eggs, moths, caterpillars, flies. It is advisable to soak them in warm water before use.

By the way, insects can be stored for future use and stored in the freezer. They are mixed into a single mass, a little water is added, balls are rolled up and put into the freezer, covered with paper or foil on top.

Bread and grains are not suitable for food - the chick will die. Milk will cause permanent diarrhea.

At the end of the next feeding, the swift should drink water. Pour about 4-5 drops of liquid into the beak.

Before the next session of eating, carefully wrap the bird in a scarf or napkin and take it in your left hand. With your right hand, gently open the beak and fix the gap with the tip of your index finger.

Using tweezers, take the cooked insect (or other food) and place it at the bottom of the throat, at the base of the tongue. After feeding, gently stroke the feathers on the neck to build trust in the chick.

Each chick eats up to 50 medium-sized crickets per day. This means that in one sitting (1 time per hour) 3 similar insects should be fed.

You need to feed the chick from 5 o'clock in the morning until late in the evening. An older individual can be fed less often, but more plentifully.

An adult bird, ready to fly, should weigh from 40 to 44 g and have a body length of 20 to 24 cm.

Flight

Don't worry about flying, this skill is laid down at the genetic level. It is necessary to release a strengthened swift on a mowed field or other open area. Place your pet on an open palm and raise it above head level. No need to toss.

Ideally, you will feel a slight shiver - the swift will begin to warm up the muscles and soon fly away. If he lands nearby, it means that he is not yet quite ready for independence. It will take another 2-3 days of the usual care.

Tip: Skip 1 feeding shortly before the flight so that the bird has an incentive to take off and search for food on its own.

It is advisable to release the grown swift in a place where flocks of relatives are circling so that he can join one of them.

© Ilya Vladimirovich | 2018-07-23
amateur gardener

About what to feed the swift, we will tell in this article. If you find a sick bird on the street, you should immediately contact your veterinarian. He will also advise you on the diet. If the selected individual is healthy, you have a “homeless” chick in your hands - the menu for feeding is given below. But remember that these birds are capricious: care will require patience and time. They are demanding on food, do not tolerate restrictions in freedom, and do not tolerate captivity. Be responsible, because the life of a pet depends only on you.

Dispelling delusions

There is an opinion among people that the nature of the swifts does not allow them to be kept at home. This is the first myth. Care and maintenance of these birds at home is troublesome, but not hopeless. If the chick fell out of the nest, but it is impossible to return it, it is possible to leave it.

Never give the swifts you find to the zoo: they will become food for birds of prey.

If a swift chick has broken its wing, it is useless to nurse it. This is the second myth. It is believed that they cannot live without the sky, they quickly fade. Of course, the inability to fly is a great stress for birds. But they will survive it if they are surrounded by care.

If in doubt whether it is necessary to save swifts and whether it is possible to keep them at home, most likely you are not ready for such a responsibility. Birds are great companions, but taming them is hard work. Never forget about it.

Food in nature and features of its production

The lifestyle of the black swift is such that in a day in search of food it flies up to 800 km. And all due to the fact that in nature the bird feeds on air plankton: flying insects, spiders.

The standard height at which birds forage is 50-100 meters. But, depending on weather conditions, the birds rise higher or descend to the ground. Feathers are finicky - they absorb the largest possible insects.

In the process of hunting, birds do not swallow food immediately. Captured insects enter the crop, where they are treated with saliva. When processed, the food turns into a kind of ball, which they swallow or take to the nest. One lump (bolus) contains several thousand bugs.

Diet for home feeding: what can be given and what will hurt

The black swift is an insectivore. At home, chicks and adults are best fed with crickets. They are sold in pet stores at a low price. Turkmen cockroaches are also suitable, which are distinguished by a high content of nutrients and good digestibility.

Cockroaches are especially useful for chicks that have fallen out of the nest. If you feed them to babies, the feather cover will improve. The main thing is to remove everything hard and poorly digestible before feeding insects: paws, head, assholes.

Ant pupae are also useful for birds. But they are not sold in the store. This delicacy will have to be sought in forests and gardens. Maggots are also suitable - larvae of blowflies. In order not to harm, feed the swift with larvae should be careful: no more than a teaspoon per day. They overload the liver.

You should also feed:

• mosquitoes;
• ordinary flies;
• bloodworm.

Never give your bird earthworms. This will result in the death of the pet. Carefully feed him with zoophobuses and flour worms: no more than 3 pcs. per day. Before serving, the larvae are crushed or their heads are cut off.

Temporary measures in emergency cases

Birds will die due to improper feeding. Porridge, ready-made feed mixture, mash - all this leads to the death of birds. But what you can feed swifts when there are no insects is fat-free cottage cheese or dry fish food (gammarus).

Eggs cause disturbances in the digestive system, so it is forbidden to feed them to the swift. Human food, suitable for many birds, meat, fish, vegetables, is detrimental to these flyers. Even cottage cheese or gammarus should not be abused: 1-2 doses per day, if there are no other options.

Since the swift will die due to the wrong food, it is better to give him insects right away, and not to “be wiser” with the diet. Finding a bird on the street, go to the pet store on the way home and buy suitable food. If this is not possible, it remains to arm yourself with a net and go on a “hunt”.

The nuances of cooking

Despite the fact that wayward birds eat only insects, you still have to cook food for them. If you do not know how to do it correctly, this section is for you. Be sure to wash your hands before you start cooking. Dirt and microbes are dangerous for the body of birds.

Since swifts are finicky birds, they are served only freshly prepared food. Make sure it doesn't smell sour or musty.

Using dried insects, clear the mixture of debris:

• fragments;
• stones;
• branches.

Place the bugs in warm water for a fresh look. Discuss before serving. The same cooking scheme is suitable for frozen insects.

Before serving to an adult swift, insects are laid out on a plate. If you are nursing a chick, you should roll balls from the bugs. Crushed or mashed fly larvae are suitable as a binding substrate.

Frequency and method of feeding

Small swifts are fed about 14-16 times a day. The frequency of meals is every 40-60 minutes. The first feeding is at 6 am, the last one is at 10 pm (or later). It is important that the next portion completely fills the goiter of the bird. You can give food with tweezers.

An adult swift is fed every 2-3 hours. If the bird is healthy, she actively asks for food, grabbing food from her hands.

If the bird is sick or weak, it is more difficult to feed it. To care for such individuals, insects are ground into porridge. Use a syringe to give food. Be careful when handling the swift: do not damage the feathers. It's better to wrap it in a napkin. Pry the beak from the side and gently open it. Give your pet some food and see if he swallows. Weakened birds should be given water after feeding.

The first sign that there is a problem with the baby is that he does not open his beak. If the chick refuses to eat, immediately contact your veterinarian for detailed instructions.

Relationship to water

In nature, swifts drink water in flight, such as catching raindrops. Sometimes they use reservoirs to quench their thirst: they glide over the surface with their beak, planning over a pond, river, stream. To repeat this at home, of course, will not work.

At home, especially swift chicks, you can drink by dipping your finger into the water. Give it with food, dipping the bugs so that it does not have time to evaporate. Having decided to leave the bird at home, you can buy an autodrinker - this is convenient.

You can drink swifts from a cup, only very carefully. First, pour water at the bottom so that the bird does not choke out of ignorance. Do not leave the container in the house unattended. Keep fluid fresh and clean.

Birds, getting used to the house and you, will have a different attitude to the water. Over time, you can leave the bowl in the cage: swifts will use it as a bath.

Determine age, gender, type

The easiest way is to confuse a swift with a swallow. The care of these birds will vary, so you should learn to determine who is who. The main distinguishing feature of these birds is the paws.

All fingers on the paws of black swifts are directed forward. This arrangement allows you to freely stay on steep surfaces. What is important in their lifestyle. The paws of swallows are different: one finger looks back. This makes it easier for birds to walk on the ground or sit in trees.

Determining the age of a swift is also not difficult. This is necessary in order to know exactly how and how much to feed the birds. Adults differ from chicks in color: black feathers with a white spot on the neck. They have long wings - 3.5 cm longer than the tail.

The chicks are covered not with feathers, but with tubules that open with age. First, the body is covered with down. Then feathers grow. The older the bird, the more it resembles an adult. You can distinguish a growing swift by pink paws, a light border on feathers and a white muzzle.

But it is impossible to determine the sex of a swift at home. They have no outward signs. The only way to find out if you got a male or a female is to do a DNA test. But such a need will arise only if you decide to buy a pair for a new pet.

In the comments to the article, ask questions and share your experience.

From: Eugene Phone: +79145 Message: Hello! Haircut question. They say that swifts can be fed at home (injured, fallen chicks) only with insects. But after all, the sparrow is also an insectivorous bird, but it can also eat grain - millet, wheat. Is it possible to feed a swift at home with grain? Will he, his plumage, suffer from this? Can you give him milk?

Good afternoon Sparrow is a granivorous bird in the summer season, switching to feeding chicks also with insects. This is a common practice among our granivorous birds. At the same time, the swift is a highly specialized species in this respect and therefore it feeds exclusively on insects. Well, draw your own conclusions!

Sincerely, Vladimir Romanov

foot of a swift

Difficult to find insects for swifts

Thanks for the answer!

I understand that in nature the swift eats only insects.

But at home it is very difficult to find such insects.

Where does such a conclusion come from that only insects can eat a swift?

Milk contains animal fats.

Why can't you give milk to a swift?

Boil the grain in milk and give it to him?

Why is it dangerous, on what basis is such a restriction that only insects?

Evgeny Epishkin.

Mixtures for insectivorous birds suitable for swifts

There are mixtures for insectivorous birds consisting of cottage cheese, hard-boiled eggs + boiled minced meat + dry hamarus or daphnia. Also add a few drops of joy to the mixture. And on such a mixture, many swifts manage to return to freedom in the future. Those swifts that are “hung” and cannot fly away can also be given cat whiskey in pillows canned in jelly in sachets - they are available everywhere in shopping centers. A little more they give a flour worm. On such a diet, they live quite a long time - several years in captivity. So there are many possibilities. As for the care and feeding of an unusual diet for any bird, this is fraught with their death (although there are a lot of examples in this regard - for example, birds of prey which some manage to feed with a bun and sausage for a year or even two), but all the same, in the end, in addition to a significant defect with plumage, they lose their own bird life!

Sincerely, Vladimir Romanov

There is no food for the swift in our city

From: Daria

Message:

Hello! yesterday I picked up a black swift on the street (already apparently an adult). He was sitting on the pavement. At first I tried to lift it into the air so that it flew (the first time I planted it on a tree, but it fell; the second time I tried it with my hands, but also unsuccessfully). We brought him home, put him in a box, upholstered it with fabric so that he was more or less comfortable. We feed him every 1.5 hours (with the exception of the night from 9 to 8 in the morning) with chopped chicken yolk with protein + low-fat cottage cheese + 3 pieces of gammarus (I read once a week that you can give) + flies, mosquitoes (i.e., that we catch) little by little. Drink boiled water with a drop of honey.

Unfortunately, there is no other food for swifts in our city (neither crickets nor cockroaches are sold in the fauna).

He spreads his wings, but he cannot fly (he immediately falls to the ground). Today they took him outside again to try to let him go, but all to no avail, he immediately falls, although he works with his wings (((His wings are intact.

I would like to ask if it is possible to feed this set of products, in what portions and how many times a day? Why is he not flying and how can I help him?

And do you have a shelter for such birds, if we suddenly find ourselves in Moscow.

We ourselves live in the Vladimir region, Murom

Ant egg for swift

Good afternoon

Yes you can! FEED! Try the ant egg too! You can weigh the bird on the scales and send the weight data.

Hello! Bird weight 32 gr

Sincerely, Vladimir Romanov

From: Sergey

Message:

In June, a swift was picked up with a broken wing (fracture of the radius). The bird was in a small box

(to limit movements) for a month. The x-ray results showed that the wing had grown together correctly and

the swift can fly. But during this time there were problems with the paws (see file. 0030) On the recommendation of an ornithologist

Treatment started a week ago

1 Cifalexin Susp. 125 ml / 5 ml - 0.1 drug (suspension) + 0.9 ml of water = 0.1 ml of the mixture, 2 times a day, orally for 7 days

2 Prednisolone 30 ml / 1 ml - 0.1 ml of the drug + 0.5 ml of water = 0.05 ml of the mixture 1 time per day, orally for 5 days

3 Hyoxysone ointment - treatment of paws, 3-4 times a day, 2 weeks

4 Baths with a pale pink solution of potassium permanganate in water 37-40%, 10-20 min. 1 per day. 10 days

The results to date are as follows (see file. 0056)

Tell me, please, what can be done, how to help the bird?

Treatment for a swift

Good afternoon You need to completely refuse the prescribed treatment. Now it is necessary to switch to treatment with dermatophytol ointment and carry out corrective treatment of the swift. You can come to us at the bird hospital.

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, the nests are difficult to see, as they are located in various 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 hunt at high altitudes, and in cloudy weather, it happens that they fly above the ground 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 at an early age (when they are not yet feathered) 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 torpor" is short, they can starve for a very 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 the 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 squad 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 the European part of Russia, but east of Altai to Kamchatka, Sakhalin and Primorye, the white-banded swift is much more common, which, as the name suggests, has a catchy white stripe on the uppertail. It is this swift that nests in the cities of Siberia and the 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.