How to hatch a swift chick?

Answer:

Nestlings and very young swifts can be distinguished from adults by thin white edges along the edge of the feathers, as well as by a bright bright spot on the throat and around the beak. In adult swifts, there are no borders on the feathers, and the spot on the throat almost does not stand out.

In most cases, it is the chicks that fall into the hands of a person, either flying out of the nest ahead of time, or not gaining enough strength for their first flight and again ending up on the ground. It happens that the shearlings fall out of the nest and much ahead of schedule, mainly during the heat or severe thunderstorms. In this case, looking at the underside of the wing, you will see that the bases of the feathers are hidden in thin stump tubes.

If a chick has come to you, and his wings and plumage are in order, then your mission is only to feed him until the moment when he becomes ready to fly. Depending on the age at which he came to you, it can take from 1-2 days to 3-4 weeks. Swift chicks grow rather slowly and usually reach "flight" conditions on the 41st-42nd day from the moment of hatching. But, unlike the young of other birds, young shearers do not need to be taught anything - all the necessary skills are inherent in them at the genetic level.

If the bird - regardless of its age - is injured, with broken feathers or damaged wings, seek out an ornithologist veterinarian. Perhaps the bird can still be cured. But, unfortunately, it often happens that the injury forever deprives the swift of the ability to fly. In nature, this will not survive. However, as a pet, he can live for a long time, several years.

Where to begin?

When you need to pick up a bird, try to do it through a paper napkin. This will protect the feathers from damage. In general, it is necessary to carefully protect the plumage of a bird - it depends on it whether it can fly and subsequently survive in nature.

If her plumage is soiled, gently wash off the dirt with warm water. At the same time, you can’t rub feathers, wet it very much, and even more so bathe the whole bird - this will cause hypothermia. Also, do not use soap or other detergents, so as not to damage the plumage and delicate skin of the bird.

Look closely at the bird. It is important to immediately determine the degree of her fatness - it depends on how exactly to start feeding. To do this, carefully feel the middle of the chest, where the keel bone is located. In a normally well-fed bird, there are dense muscles on the sides of the keel, and the bone only protrudes slightly, and the chest is rounded. In an emaciated bird, the keel protrudes forward with a sharp rib, and the chest is almost triangular to the touch.

Then the bird should be watered. The easiest way to do this is by dropping water from a pipette or syringe with the needle removed from the side into the corner of the beak. You will see how the bird will swallow the water. If the chick is severely malnourished, it is better to drink it not with clean water, but with a glucose solution.

The first feeding should begin about an hour or two after that. For emaciated birds, the interval is shorter: no more than 40 minutes, as are the subsequent intervals between feedings.

In the future, it is no longer necessary to water the bird: the moisture contained in the feed will be quite enough for it.

house for the swift

The best home for a haircut is a small cardboard box with a lid, such as a shoe box. Ventilation holes should be made in the lid, and the bottom should be covered with several layers of napkins or a soft cloth. It’s also good to make a low elevation there on which the bird can sit comfortably: a step curved from cardboard wrapped in flannel, or a ring folded from a paper towel. The bedding should be replaced when soiled. Most of the time the chicks spend lying at the bottom of their shelter. There is no need to keep the box open: the swift's nest is a semi-dark closed space, and it is in such conditions that the bird will feel comfortable.

It is unacceptable to keep swifts in cages: this will lead to irreparable damage to the plumage.

What to feed the swift?

Swift is an obligate insectivorous bird. This means that they cannot eat anything except insects, any other food will cause severe metabolic disorders in the bird. What to feed the swift at home?

It is most convenient to purchase fodder insects - these include cockroaches (marble, Turkmen), crickets (banana, brownie). You can find them on websites with ads and in pet stores. These insects can be frozen.

The haircut is able to eat up to 15-20 grams of food per day, and it needs to be fed every 1.5-2 hours during daylight hours - this is more than 70 large insects per day, so you will have to purchase a lot of them.

Also suitable are the larvae of the wax moth, flour beetle and zofobas. But the flour worm is not recommended as a permanent diet, and for feeding it is advisable to first of all choose molted white worms. It is convenient to first drown them in water so that they do not move. Zofobas is a very fatty food, so limit the chick to a few worms per day. Before feeding the zofobas, cut it into pieces, discard the head.

Beekeepers can help you. You can buy (and sometimes get for free) drones from them. For chicks, larvae of the age of 16-20 days are suitable, already formed, with lilac eyes, but not yet hard. These larvae should be immediately frozen along with the combs and taken out as needed. Keep in mind that the drones appear in the spring, and you can get a few in the first half of the summer. Therefore, if you purposefully intend to feed a shearling, you need to agree with the beekeeper in advance.
Not every city sells insects. But many suppliers of food insects make deliveries using long-distance buses. If this is not possible - do not despair, there are other options.

For example, ant pupae. Very nutritious and healthy food. Both forest and field ants are suitable. Collect ant eggs carefully and do not be greedy, the ruin of forest anthills is poaching. There is a video on the network on how to quickly clean ant eggs from debris. Do not take eggs from garden areas treated with insecticides and pesticides.

To catch flies, moths and night butterflies - put a bowl of water on the windowsill at night, and above it - a bright light bulb. Midges will beat against a light bulb and fall into the water, overnight you can collect insects for one feeding. During the day, you can go out into the field with a net and drive it along the grass, “mow”, collecting grasshoppers and other insects. Keep chicks away from beetles, bees, wasps, ants, and any brightly colored supposedly poisonous insects. All insects from nature must be frozen for at least 5 hours.

Attention, you can not give earthworms and bloodworms! Maggot is also highly discouraged. While there are no insects, such a mash is acceptable for a day or two: finely chop the maggot with nail scissors, mix with daphnia or gammarus (fish food), the mixture can be frozen in portions in syringes. You can also remove flies from maggot, but you can’t feed it entirely. If there is no maggot, use fat-free cottage cheese by mixing it with daphnia. THIS MIXTURE IS NO MORE THAN FOR A DAY! Longer feeding of sheared cottage cheese leads to the loss of the feather, and a little later - death. Do not feed shearers anything but insects!

Please note that if the chick is very weak and thin - it cannot be fed according to standard norms, it will die from whole insects. You need to start with a drop of 5% glucose, and then liquid warm food often and in small portions - you can give insects without a skin (cut off all the chitin from frozen cockroaches, or squeeze out the insides from thawed ones).

rearing

The hardest part is feeding. Swifts do not know how to peck from a bowl: adults grab prey in the air, and parents put balls of insects stuck together by saliva into the beak of chicks. But the chick that came to you does not yet understand that they are offering food, and the circumstances of feeding are very different from natural ones. Therefore, at first, it is almost inevitable that the chick will have to be force-fed.

Take the bird firmly in your left hand, holding the head with your thumb; with the right, open the beak by hooking it on the side with a fingernail or gently pulling down the lower part. Hold the beak open with the index finger of your left hand, while with your right hand put a lump of food there. Then make sure the food is swallowed; You can stroke the goiter of the chick, this will calm him down and help him swallow food. It is convenient to feed the swift together: one holds it and opens its beak, and the other puts food there. Make sure that food does not get into the nostrils.

In the future, before forcibly opening the swift's beak, hold a lump of food in front of its nose, move it along the edge of the beak. As soon as the chick opens its mouth, put food there. Be patient; but if the haircut is still “not being provoked”, force feed and try another time. After a while, he will figure out what's what, and he will take the offered food himself. From this moment on, it is no longer necessary to take it in your hands when feeding, just stretch out a ball of food, holding it in your fingers or putting a toothpick on the blunt end.

Keep an eye on the shearer's poop and adjust his diet if something is wrong. They should stand out regularly and be black and white, uniform, enclosed in a thin film, which makes it easy to remove them from the nest. Swift parents do just that; follow their example and keep the chick clean.

When did the chick grow up?

When folded, the wings of an adult swift are about 16 cm, it is clearly seen that the tail is forked, the total length of the bird is 16-17 cm. Ready to fly, the chick is constantly trying to get out of the box, restless, opening and pulling its wings. Preparing for the flight, the chick often refuses to feed, losing weight to 40-45 grams (sitting in the nest, it can get fat up to 60, but before the start of flights it will definitely lose weight).

Departure

It is best to release the swift before sunset, always in good weather. Go to an open, preferably elevated place with low grass, where it will be easy to find a bird if the attempt to fly is unsuccessful. In addition, the swift needs space to gain the desired speed. Raise the swift on an outstretched hand, let him look around. Usually, before taking off, he empties his intestines and begins to shiver finely, warming up his muscles. At this moment, you can lightly toss the swift into the air; it will break from your palm and fly.

If the swift attempt to fly fails, simply take the bird back and repeat the experiment in 1-2 days. Inevitably, a happy day will come and you will see your pet circling high in the sky.

Swift is a bird that can be found in almost all corners of the planet. You will not find them except in Antarctica, southern Chile and Argentina, New Zealand and most of Australia. Despite this prevalence, little is known about them to the average person.

Description of swifts

Residents of cities and villages have long been accustomed to them. The presence of these birds on the streets will not surprise anyone. In some countries, they were even given the nickname "feathered hustlers." Despite this, the swift is a rather unusual bird. The swift family has more than 16 species. V. They are very similar to swallows, although they are not their relatives. The swallow belongs to the passerine family. But outwardly, only a careful study will help to find the differences between these two birds. Swifts have larger wings, so they make fewer movements in flight.

This is interesting! Swifts are a manifestation of the wonders of aerodynamics. Their unusual agility is partly due to their ability to hit one wing faster than the other in flight. Wings that beat at different intervals allow the swift to make sharp turns without slowing down. This helps to overtake the insect by making a circle to catch it in flight.

Such small birds are capable of flying at a speed of about 170 km / h, while the flight of an ordinary swallow takes place at a maximum speed of 80 km / h. The unique structure of the wing allows you to achieve stunning results. Thanks to him, the wing has a special flexibility and maneuverability during the flight. Swift can stay in the air for up to 6 months. By the way - these birds are even able to mate while in the sky.

Appearance

Swifts have a large head, body size is 10-25 cm, weight, depending on the variety, from 45 to 180 g. They have a sharp beak, but rather short. The eyes are dark. The wings of the swift are curved and oblong, the tail is forked, long and straight.

Despite such powerful wings, the swift has very small and weak legs. The fingers are short with long claws pointing forward. Due to this structure, often juveniles are not able to take to the air from a flat surface. But on the other hand, the structure of the fingers helps them to cling to the ledges of sheer cliffs.

The plumage of the swift has a dark color - black and gray shades with gloss. However, swifts with a belt of white feathers are often found. White feathers may also be present on the bird's chest, undertail zone, on the inside of the neck and on the forehead. In appearance, it is impossible to determine the gender of the swift, even upon close examination. There are no differences in appearance between males and females.

The most common species is the black swift. They can often be seen darting through the air in city parks, making whistling sounds. At the same time, the eastern regions are breaking records for the populations of other, white-striped swifts. The situation is the same in some other countries. If you do not take into account color differences, the birds of these two species are very similar in body structure and behavior.

Character and lifestyle

Swifts are assigned to the order Swift-like. More than 85 species of this order have been identified worldwide. Among them there are both sedentary and migratory species. They nest most often in colonies, although they like to live in a few flocks. Swift colonies can reach up to thousands of pairs. They lead an active lifestyle, staying awake from morning until late at night.

Historically, swifts nested in hollows high in large trees. They are still not averse to settling down in this way in Scotland and Abernathy Woodland. Today, almost all swifts nest in colonies under the roofs of old buildings. The main connecting material for building dwellings is their own saliva. With a specialized salivary gland, they can produce large amounts of mucus that protrudes

How long does a swift live

In the wild, the swift usually lives for about 5 and a half years.

Types of swifts

There are many types of swifts. The most common of them is . He is extremely lucky, as he is the only representative who can take off from a flat surface, namely from the ground. He manages to jump a little on his feet, which makes it possible to flap his wings well. The singing of the black swift is compared with subtle music.

This is interesting! The body length of the average mustachioed swift reaches 32 cm. It is the largest of all representatives. The mustachioed swift is quite ready for life in the mountains, at an altitude of one and a half thousand meters above the sea. His head is decorated with a long beautiful mustache and whitish eyebrows.

The body length of the needle-tailed swift varies from 19 to 22 cm, the width of the deployed wings is from 48 to 55 cm, and the weight ranges from 100 to 175 g. The maximum wing size is 21 cm, and the body weight is 140 g. The lower part of its body is painted dark shade, and the upper one is a light brown plumage color.

Black wings are characterized by a metallic sheen. The head and throat are covered with white feathers. They nest more often in wooded areas, nesting in hollows of trees. The clutch usually contains 3-6 eggs.

Range, habitats

They spend their winters south of the Sahara. British ringed birds have been found in the Congo Basin, Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. So far, there is no reliable data on which routes the birds use for wintering.

Swift diet

A distinctive feature of these animals is high dependence on weather, climatic conditions of the external environment. Prolonged fasting can lower the body temperature of a bird of this species to 20 degrees Celsius. Because of this, one can often observe how birds fall into a kind of stupor.

They are agile in the air, so they can easily catch flying insects with their own beak, like a net. Swifts are the only birds of prey capable of taking food from the falcon itself.

In case food is not obtained, the swift can plunge into a short 2-10 day hibernation, waiting for better weather conditions. This "life hack" is within the power of not only adult swifts, but also small chicks.

Babies are able to "sleep" for up to 8-9 days, while their older relatives and parents leave the nest in search of food sources. As a rule, swifts fly away to winter quarters in warmer climes in August. But mostly it depends more on the weather outside. Their weaning in search of food for a long period is called weather migration.

Reproduction and offspring

Swifts can live both in large and small cities, and in mountains, forests and deserts. The choice of nesting site for these birds can be varied. They can "build" housing on tree branches, in hollows, under the roofs of houses and in earthen burrows.

The nest itself is built from natural materials, of plant origin, available to these birds. When it comes time to build, swifts are unable to pick up leaves, sticks, or dirt from the ground, as is often the case with other birds.

Among the materials there will be all kinds of fibers, feathers, small branches that a bird can bring, picking up on the fly. It takes a couple about 7 days to build one dwelling, but every year after wintering they return back to their native monastery.

This is interesting! Swifts are romantic faithful monogamous. The family partner is chosen once and for life. This aerial lifestyle means they even mate on the fly.

During the production of offspring, the female sits on the eggs. At this time, the future father, as a real earner, is looking for food for the future mother and himself. The incubation time of eggs lasts about 15-22 days.

Fluctuations in time are largely dependent on food supplies. The main color of the eggs in the clutch is white. Their number varies from 1 to 4 pieces. From the moment of birth, the chicks are still in the parental nest for about 39 days. The duration of this period depends on weather conditions.

The black swift (Apus apus) is a relatively small but unusually interesting bird belonging to the genus of swifts and the swift family, known to many as the tower swift.

Appearance and description of the black swift

Black swifts have a body reaching a length of 18 cm with a wingspan of 40 cm. The average wing length of an adult is approximately 16-17 cm. The bird's forked tail is 7-8 cm long. The tail plumage is unremarkable, of an ordinary dark brown color with a slight greenish-metallic tint.

On short, but very strong legs, there are four fingers facing forward, which are equipped with fairly sharp and tenacious claws. With a body weight of 37-56 g, black swifts are perfectly adapted to their natural habitat, where their life expectancy is a quarter of a century, and sometimes more.

This is interesting! The Black Swift is the only bird that can eat, drink, mate, and sleep while in flight. Among other things, this bird can spend several years in the air, without landing on the surface of the earth.

Swifts resemble swallows in their shape. A rounded whitish spot is clearly visible on the throat and chin. The eyes are dark brown. The beak is black, and the paws are characterized by light brown coloring.

The short beak has a very wide mouth opening. Differences in the plumage of males and females are completely absent, however, a feature of young individuals is a lighter shade of feathers with off-white edging. In summer, the plumage can burn out strongly, so the appearance of the bird becomes even more nondescript.

Living in the wild

Swifts belong to the category of very common bird species, so residents of megacities may face the so-called “swift problem”, which consists in a mass gathering of chicks that cannot fly well from the nest.

Habitats and geography

The main habitat of the black swift is represented by Europe, as well as the territory of Asia and Africa.. Swifts belong to, and at the very beginning of the nesting season they fly to European and Asian countries.

This is interesting! Initially, the main habitat of the black swift was mountainous areas, which were overgrown with dense wooded vegetation, but now this bird is increasingly settling en masse in close proximity to people's dwellings and natural reservoirs.

It is the temperate climate zone that allows this bird to get a good food base in the spring-summer period, represented by different types of insects. With the onset of autumn cooling, swifts get ready to go and fly to southern Africa, where they successfully winter.

Black swift lifestyle

Black swifts are quite deservedly considered very noisy and sociable birds, which most often settle in medium-sized noisy colonies. A significant part of the time, outside the nesting season, adults spend in flight.

Birds of this species are able to flap their wings frequently and fly very fast. A specific feature is the ability to perform a gliding flight. In the evening, on fine days, black swifts quite often arrange a kind of air “race”, during which they make very sharp turns and announce the surroundings with loud cries.

This is interesting! A characteristic feature of this species is the lack of the ability to walk. With the help of short and very strong paws, birds easily cling to any rough surfaces on vertical walls or sheer cliffs.

Diet, nutrition, swift prey

The basis of the diet of the black swift is made up of all kinds of winged insects, as well as small spiders that move through the air on the web. To find enough food for itself, the bird is able to fly long distances during the day. On cold rainy days, winged insects practically do not rise into the air, so swifts have to fly several hundred kilometers in search of food. The bird catches its prey with its beak, like a net. Black swifts also drink in flight.

This is interesting! On the territory of the capital and other fairly large cities, one of the few birds that can exterminate a huge number of pests, including poplar moths and mosquitoes, is precisely the black swift.

If necessary, not only high-rise buildings, trees, poles and wires, but also airspace, where the bird freely soars and dozes until dawn, become their overnight stay. Adult swifts are able to rise to a height of two to three kilometers.

It should be noted that adults can lose a third of their body weight with absolutely no visible damage to health and with full preservation of motor activity.

The main enemies of the bird

At the end of the nineteenth century, on the territory of Southern Europe, there was a mass destruction of nests of black swifts. This situation was due to the popularity of the meat of the chicks of this species, which was considered a delicacy. Sometimes swifts, especially sick ones, become easy prey for birds of prey and cats.

This is interesting! A fairly large number of individuals die as a result of accidental collisions with wires on power lines.

Reproduction of the black swift

Sufficiently large flocks of black swifts arrive for nesting, as a rule, at the end of April or in the first ten days of May. Almost the entire mating season and "family life" of this bird takes place in flight, where not only the search for a partner is carried out, but also mating and even the collection of basic materials for the subsequent construction of the nest.

All the feathers and fluff collected in the air, as well as dry straws and blades of grass, the bird sticks together with the help of a special secret of the salivary glands. The constructed nest has a characteristic shape of a small cup with a fairly large notch. In the last decade of May, the female lays two or three eggs. For three weeks, the clutch is incubated alternately by the male and female. Naked chicks are born, which relatively quickly acquire a grayish fluff.

Under the care of their parents, swift chicks are up to one and a half months of age. If the parents are away for too long, the chicks are able to fall into a kind of torpor, which is accompanied by a decrease in body temperature and slow breathing. Thus, the accumulated fat reserves allow them to withstand a week-long fast with relative ease.

This is interesting! When the parents return, the chicks come out of the state of forced hibernation, and as a result of increased nutrition, they very quickly gain the lost body weight. In the process of feeding, the parent is able to bring about a thousand insects in its beak at a time.

Black swifts feed their chicks with all kinds of insects, having previously glued them with saliva into small and compact feed lumps. After the young birds are well enough strengthened, they embark on an independent flight and already get their own food. Parents completely lose all interest in young people who have left the nest.

It is also interesting that young birds in the autumn go to warm countries for the winter and stay there for about three years. Only after reaching puberty, such swifts return to their nesting places, where they breed their own offspring.

In late spring, it often happens that the chicks fall out of the nest. Some manage to survive. Sometimes we happen to pick up an adult wounded bird. What to do if a swift turns out to be such a foundling? How to feed this extremely picky bird at home? But let's first determine who is in front of us: a swallow (there are several types) or a swift.

In village women, 3 fingers on the paw are directed forward, and one is backward. For urban residents of black swifts, everything is different. They have 4 fingers exposed, like a foot, forward. And adults are even easier to identify: the swallow has a white shirt-front on its chest.

So, you are convinced that before you is not a sparrow, not a wagtail and not a killer whale, but a real Apus apus. In English - What to feed your foundling at home? In the EU countries there are special shelters for wild animals and birds, where specialists are engaged in nursing them. We have all hope - on the mercy and patience of ordinary people. But, in addition to kindness and a desire to help, you also need to know what to feed these foundlings, since the wrong food can lead to the death of the animal.

It is important to determine how old the swift bird is in front of you. What do young animals eat and how often? Parents feed their chicks 50-70 times a day, but your pet can get by with one meal per hour. The entire diet consists of insects - crushed in the beak of the parents and compressed with the help of their saliva into a ball. Such bird food is thrust deep into the throat of the cubs. What should a city dweller who found a haircut do? If the chick is very weak, first you need to give him a little drink.

Requires a removable needle. We collect 2-3 cubes of warm boiled water in it. We wrap the chick in a napkin, take it with our left hand. Gently open the beak with the right hand and fix it with the nail of the index finger of the left hand. And then, drop by drop, we introduce liquid onto the tongue. If a bird swallows water, then all is not lost, and it makes sense to fight for her life. A weakened haircut needs to be provided with heating (with a lamp or a heating pad). Place it in a box or bowl (but never in a cage) and give it to eat as soon as possible. swift? At first - after all, time does not endure - offer him baby meat puree. Roll up the ball and place the tweezers with rounded tips on the base of the tongue.

But such a diet should not be constant - a maximum of two days. Do not forget that he is insectivorous - this black swift. What to feed such a picky eater at home? Bread is contraindicated, as well as eggs, food for parrots, canaries, dogs and cats. Only crickets, flies and their larvae, drones, ant eggs and wax moths. What are we doing? We order wax moth larvae and crickets in specialized stores for animals or via Internet delivery. Contacting your local beekeepers association will provide you with drones. Fly larvae can be purchased at fisherman's shops. Half of them need to be put in a warm place so that adult insects hatch, and the rest - in the refrigerator.

You will face much greater difficulties if an adult swift falls into your hands. How to feed at home a bird that is used to grabbing insects on the fly? Until your pet recovers and is able to get his own food, you will have to provide him with live flies. And do not forget to water the bird every time after feeding.