Swift bird than feed at home. Black swift: how to feed a chick and an adult at home? The appearance and description of the black swift

Swifts are birds with long wings that extend beyond the tail when folded. In size, these birds are similar to a sparrow. In the shape of its head, a swift resembles bird of preyhowever, only insects are on the menu. Sometimes these birds are confused with swallows. Yes, the external similarity between these species of birds is great.

However, swallows, unlike swifts, have a white breast. Another difference between these birds is the location of the toes on their paws. In the swallow, three of them are directed forward, and one backward. But nature gave the swift the opportunity, like a climber, to climb tree trunks and walls of buildings. He has all four fingers pointing forward.

Swifts are birds with brownish-black plumage, shining with a barely noticeable greenish tint. By autumn, this color becomes paler. It fades from the bright summer sun. But the legs and beak of the swift are always black.

Geography of distribution

Swifts can be found throughout Europe, with the exception of the tundra zones. These birds also flew over the Urals, populating the territory up to Transbaikalia. Black small birds also live in North-West Africa. You can meet them in Syria and Palestine, as well as in the Himalayas.

Swifts overwinter in Africa. During this period, they occupy all of its southern territories, starting from the equator, reaching the island of Madagascar.

Today the swift is considered an urban bird. However, some of its nests are found in countryside... In villages, birds choose stone buildings for their settlements. They can be cowsheds and churches, as well as grain stores.

But in Transbaikalia, the black swift can be found only in forests. Its brother nests in cities. This is another type of swifts called white-belted.

Arrival after wintering

Scientists have discovered many interesting ecological features of swifts. One of them is that after wintering, these birds arrive rather late. However, their appearance guarantees the onset of stable heat.

Swifts arrive at their native nests within a certain period lasting from 18 to 27 days. Moreover, these birds do not create a large school. They appear in small groups. Arrival time differs by one or two days.

Nesting

Swifts start building their own house 2-3 days after arrival. The cozy nest becomes fully habitable just eight days after the start of work. The female lays 2-3 eggs in it, which both parents incubate. After 11-16 days, the swifts have offspring.

With insufficient food, birds sometimes get rid of their eggs. This can be called a kind of survival instinct during a hunger period.

Nutrition in vivo

Food for swifts in nature is exclusively airy plankton, consisting of insects flying in the air and small and medium-sized spiders raised by the wind. The feeding process of these birds occurs in flight, at an altitude of 50 to 100 meters. In unfavorable weather conditions, swifts descend closer to the ground. However, it also happens that the air masses carry insects far up. In such cases, swifts are able to rise to a height equal to a kilometer from the surface of the earth.

The bird menu is very selective. As a rule, they catch and eat only those insects that they can swallow. That is why their production is small in size. In addition, swifts do not eat stinging insects. However, they are not distinguished by their bright warning color, which significantly expands the swift's diet. For example, as food, he can choose a hoverfly, which looks very much like a bee.

During the hunt, the swift collects the insects caught by it in the back of the throat, where a special food bag (goiter) is located. There, flies and other animals use saliva to bind together in a ball (bolus). The swift either periodically eats the food prepared in this way, or takes it to its nest. The food balls he collects can contain thousands of insects.

When the weather turns bad, swifts rush to the water. Here it is easier for them to catch prey. It has been established that birds tend to avoid not only bad weather, but also places where there is low pressure. In search of more favorable conditions, birds fly around the rain area in the same direction with the wind. Moreover, during the day, swifts are able to move long distances (up to 800 km). The birds wash down their food with rain drops. They can also extract liquid in low flight, sliding their black beak along the water surface.

Helping the birds

It happens that a bird that has received any damage is right under a person's feet. Anyone who decides to help her and take a small warm lump home must first of all determine whether it is an adult bird or not. Swift chicks are distinguished by a white edging located on the large primary feathers, as well as white specks on the head and the presence of tubes from which the feathers open.

After that, a person should examine the bird for deviations from the norm and external violations. For this, all parts of the body are carefully examined. If the wing or leg of the swift dangles, then the feathered one should be referred to a specialist, since this condition indicates the presence of a fracture.

In the absence of external damage, lethargic and weakened birds should be checked for infectious diseases. In this case, you will need to be tested for psittacosis, bird flu, helminths and protozoa.

Inactive swifts must be warmed up. For this, incandescent lamps with a power of 40 or 60 W are suitable, as well as bottles and heating pads with hot water.

The person should also check if the swallowing reflex has the found swift. How to feed this bird at home? Her diet does not have to be varied. In the process of nursing and feeding a swift, you need to remember what the bird eats in natural conditions, and not deviate from its natural diet.

Swifts brought home should never be placed in bird cages. In them, they will panic and fight, which will harm the plumage, without which it is impossible to fly. It is best to keep the swift in a half-open plastic box. For a chick, dimensions of 30x20x15 cm (length, width, height) are quite suitable. A small "nest" made of cork or wood is also placed here. If these materials are not available, a small glass vase wrapped in a cloth to create warmth will do.

It is important that the box is clean. Sheep will exercise their wings, and therefore no droppings should fall on them. Place absorbent paper towels at the bottom of the box and change them every day.

Insect feeding

How to feed a swift in captivity so as not to harm him? Brownies and banana crickets are perfect for this. These insects can be purchased at pet stores for a small fee. However, not only can your swift consume them. How to feed a new pet at home? Its menu is diversified by Turkmen and marble cockroaches. These insects contain a large amount of nutrients. If you do not know what to feed the swift chick, then get these cockroaches for him. They will not only be perfectly assimilated by a young individual, but will also have a positive effect on the quality of its plumage.

For the health of swifts, it is useful to feed them with ant pupae. This bird food contains a variety of vitamins. Where can I get ant pupae? They can be found in the vegetable garden or in the forest. Such a delicacy will be happy to eat a swift.

What else to feed this bird at home? Flies and mosquitoes will be a good help for her.

Often, people caring for a feathered pet ask the question: "Is it possible to feed a swift with a bloodworm?" Yes, the inclusion of these insects in the menu is allowed. However, it is worth remembering that bloodworms should only be fresh.

Also, the question often arises of whether it is possible to feed the swift maggots. Yes, they come as a supplement to the main food. Only maggots should be washed and finely chopped. It is worth remembering that this food is fatty and creates an unnecessary load on the bird's liver. That is why swift maggots can be given in minimal quantities. This volume should not exceed one teaspoon per day.

How to feed an adult swift? For feeding, you can add mealworms grown on pure raw materials to its menu. During the day, their number should not exceed 3 pieces. However, it is worth remembering that you should press down a little before serving such worms. This is due to the fact that the larvae of these beetles have very strong jaws that can damage the bird's esophagus. Also, in order not to harm the swift, the heads of the mealworms can simply be cut off.

Earthworms are dangerous food for haircuts. Birds can pick up helminths from them.

Nutrition in the absence of insects

So, you have a swift. How to feed this bird at home? Unfortunately, swifts should only feed on insects. Any other products cause irreparable damage in their bodies. Porridge, various feed mixtures or mash-ups are not only unable to replace natural nutrition, but also cause the slow death of the bird.

But sometimes a person who has found a bird that has fallen out or nests is faced with the question: "How to feed a swift chick in order to support the vital activity of its body in the coming hours, until the insects it needs are found?" In the first couple of days, the feathered pet can be regaled with meat puree for baby foodmade from beef or turkey. It is given to the bird with an insulin syringe. The very young chicks are fed every hour. In this case, the volume of puree at a time should be equal to from 0.3 to 0.5 ml.

Do not give grains and bread to feathered pets. Ready-made feed intended for insectivorous birds, also do not like swifts. Reviews from those who care for these birds warn against using these products, as they can cause poisoning.

Making mixtures

If the black swift has been living with you for several days, how to feed it to maintain the health and activity of your feathered pet? As mentioned above, insects are indispensable here. However, in addition to this, minerals and vitamins must be present in the diet. In order to enrich the food with the elements necessary for the health of the swift, special mixtures should be prepared. Some of the recipes are listed below:

1. The composition of the mixture for the swift includes a finely grated boiled chicken egg, lean beef meat, mealworms, chopped with scissors. Ant pupae are also added here. Instead of mealworms, the mixture can be enriched with wild-caught insects, fresh bloodworms or pre-scalded maggots.
2. This recipe is distinguished by a wide variety of products, therefore it is especially good for long-term keeping of the swift. In this case, the mixture includes 20% of raw lean ground beef, 25% of a hard-boiled chicken egg, pre-grinded on a grater, 20% of non-acidic, preferably boiled and pressed cottage cheese, 20% of ant pupae or mealworms, 10% of finely grated carrots and 5 % infant formula.
3. Another vitamin and mineral rich blend includes 30% minced beef heart, 25% chopped hard-boiled chicken eggs, 15% cottage cheese, 15% grated carrots, 10% insects, and 5% infant formula.
4. For black swift chicks at the age of 3-6 weeks, the mixture includes: 2-3 house crickets, 3-4 drones, half a wax moth larva, several flies and their larvae, and one eighth of a teaspoon of crushed dried insects.

The cooked products are rolled into balls of the size of peas, and in the amount of 4-5 pieces are given per feeding. It is also important not to forget to water your feathered pet. This should be done after each feeding by instilling 4-5 drops of water into the beak from a pipette. You can go the other way. Drinking may not be given at all if the balls are soaked in water before feeding.

How to prepare food for swifts?

Before handling food for birds, you should thoroughly wash your hands using a disinfectant. Only freshly prepared food should be taken for each meal.

When using dried insects, they are pre-cleaned by selecting and removing foreign particles in the form of branches and fragments of stones. After that, bugs or spiders are placed in warm water, and then dried on a sieve. They do the same with frozen insects, bringing their temperature to room temperature.

In the next stage of cooking, all the ingredients are laid out on a plate. In this case, you should pay attention to the smell of food. Rotten insects are not suitable for swifts. When preparing the feed balls, crushed fly larvae can act as a binder.

Number of meals

How many times should a swift be fed at home? Small and weak chicks are given food every hour throughout the day from six in the morning to ten in the evening. In this case, the food should be small portions of grated bugs. Strong and already grown swifts feed less often, after two to three hours. At the same time, it is important that the bird is sufficiently fed. To do this, she needs to completely fill the goiter. And this can be done only by giving the maximum amount of feed.

The goiter in most birds is part of the esophagus. In this zone, food is accumulated and stored, which helps the swift not to be distracted from his hunt. They find out about the filling of the goiter by feeling a small (pea-sized) ball on the bird's neck. Typically, a typical meal is five cockroaches or ten medium-sized crickets.

Feeding technique

A strong and healthy swift chick feeds actively. He literally pounces on the man's hand holding the food. It is most convenient to give food to such birds with tweezers.

Weakened sheepsheads, even if they are very hungry, do not open their beak themselves. They are fed either from the finger or from a syringe. But first of all, the haircut is fixed like a shawarma with a napkin. Next, they open their beak with a fingernail, where they put food. Such manipulations are successful. Even very weak chicks begin to swallow insect gruel with pleasure. After feeding, it is advisable to drop a few drops of water on the root of the bird's tongue. All described manipulations must be done carefully and gently. This is necessary in order not to bend or break the fragile tissues of the beak. Emaciated adult swifts are fed in the same way as chicks, giving them semi-liquid soft food from insects.

Dear friends! Now the season of departure from the nest of young swifts has begun. Sometimes people bring them home with good intentions - to feed them and keep them as a pet. But not everyone knows that this is a very difficult business. We bring to your attention the advice of the specialists of the Zoovet center on keeping swifts at home.

Helping the swifts.
You have found a swift and you need to determine whether it is a chick or an adult bird. The chick can be identified by the white edging on large flight feathers, the presence of tubes from which feathers open, white specks on the head. Next, we inspect the bird. We are looking for external violations and deviations from the norm. We look at the presence and integrity of plumage. We examine the wings, legs for grasses, bruises and fractures. If the wing is damaged it will be visible externally, the diseased wing will be lower, it will be lower than shoulder level. When examining, always compare paired body parts. Spread the feathers on the wings and look for bruises, wounds and thickening, which may indicate a violation of tissue integrity. The same inspection should be carried out on the legs. Examine carefully the sternum, especially the keel and presence of muscles on the sternum. If the keel protrudes strongly and the muscle frame along the edges is smoothed, then this may indicate a possible depletion of the bird. Here the bird will need to be fed. If a wing or leg is loose, then this may indicate a possible fracture. In this case, you urgently need to see a specialist. Its effectiveness depends on timely assistance.

If there is no external damage, but the bird is lethargic and weakened, then infectious diseases must be excluded. Here you need to be tested for avian influenza, psittacosis, salmonellosis, protozoa, helminths, bacteriological culture and fungi. During the examination, observe personal hygiene measures. Wash hands before and after intercourse, remove droppings every day.

If the bird is inactive and has no appetite, then it must be warmed up. For this purpose, you can use incandescent lamps with a power of 40-60 W, at a distance of 50 cm from the bottom. You can use heating pads, bottles filled with hot water. And do not forget about feeding the bird, since it feeds in flight, then on the ground, it actually cannot get food. The first step is to check for the presence of a swallowing reflex. Take an insulin syringe with a removable head, pour 0, 2-0, 3 ml of warm boiled water into it and drip into the beak drop by drop onto the tongue. The bird should swallow, this will be noticeable when it swallows. This is important for beak feeding.

When feeding, it is important to remember that swifts are insectivorous birds and insects should form the basis of their diet. Most often, chicks are picked up on the street. Under natural conditions, adult birds feed chicks (about 50-70 times a day) compressed lumps of food consisting of various types of insects, which they catch on the fly.

If you do not immediately have the opportunity to purchase insects, then the first two days you can use children's lean meat puree, turkey and beef. It can be given to the bird through an insulin syringe. If the chick is small, then it needs to be fed every hour, approximately 0.3-0.5 ml of puree at a time. But you still can't do without insects, otherwise the feather will become fragile and brittle. And so, the following insects can be used to feed the swifts: crickets, drones, wax moths, fly larvae and ant eggs. Meal worms should not be given, there is a risk of picking up a helminthic invasion. Bread and grain cannot be given. (It is not recommended to use ready-made food for insectivorous birds, according to the owners of nursing birds, there are cases of poisoning.) And do not forget to feed live insects, this is important for swifts. After each feeding, do not forget to water the swift with water, 4-5 drops in the beak (Regardless of feeding the birds with insects, vitamins and minerals must be added to the diet). Before feeding, free insects from foreign objects, remove protruding parts of the body. It is advisable to soak dry insects in warm water before eating, this can be done together with frozen insects. It is necessary that the feed was at room temperature.

Before feeding, take the chick and wrap it in a handkerchief or napkin so that there is one head outside. This is necessary so as not to injure and not stain the feathers. Take the bird in your left hand, gently open the slit of the beak with your right hand, fix the open beak with the index finger of your left hand. With your right hand, using tweezers, take the peeled insect and lay it at the very bottom of the pharynx deep into the mouth by the base of the tongue. Remember to wash your hands before feeding. After feeding, try to stroke the plumage of the throat, this will have a calming effect on the chick and build trust between you. Dry insects can be mixed and ground until smooth, add a little water to bind. Roll up walnut-sized balls from this homogeneous mass and wrap each such nut in foil and freeze in the refrigerator. This "nut" is enough for a day of feeding. You can also freeze whole insects (In the first days, in the absence of insects, you can make a mash-feed: mix low-fat scalded non-acidic cottage cheese (0%) with daphnia or gammarus, roll up balls and feed them. Up to 50 such balls (size with a cherry pit). Or up to 50 medium-sized crickets.). As a source of minerals during feed preparation, you can add bone meal, one third of a teaspoon per 50 grams of food, and 2-4 drops of a poly, multivitamin. With age, the number of feedings per day decreases, and the amount of feed increases at a time. It is imperative to control the weight of the bird. Also, monitor the droppings, if undigested pieces of chitin, wings, and so on are found in the droppings, then (this is within normal limits, in natural conditions this always happens). An adult bird, ready to fly, should have a body weight of 40-44 grams. The body length of a bird ready for independent life reaches the limits of 20-24 cm.

It is advisable to keep the bird in a half-open plastic box, 40 cm long, 30 cm wide and 15-20 cm high. Bird cages are not recommended as the swift can injure feathers on the bars. You can place an absorbent paper towel on the bottom, make a nest for the bird. It is placed in a darkened place. The socket should be in the form of a circle with a depression. As a material, you can use foam. The top of the box can be closed with gauze. The temperature in the box should be between 23-27 * C. The box can be warmed up by placing a 40-60 W table lamp next to it, use an incandescent lamp. It is not recommended to wash the bird, as a last resort, you can use a solution of chamomile and be extremely careful. It is impossible to trim the feathers, they will not be renewed until the next molt, and some flight feathers do not change for two years. Do not forget good, healthy plumage will enable your pet to survive in the wild.

Parents do not teach Swift chicks to fly, they have the ability to fly at the genetic level. A bird is ready to fly if its weight is 40-45 grams, the plumage has grown and is completely free of tubules. Flight feathers should reach 15-16 cm and protrude from the tail feathers by 3-3.5 cm. To release the swift, you need to choose a large area, a mowed meadow, a field. Keep the bird in your open palm, raising your hand slightly above your head, you do not need to throw it up, the bird will fly itself ready to fly. When you lift the bird, it has a slight tremor, and thus it warms up the muscles, preparing itself for flight. As a rule, the bird flies away by itself. If the bird, having taken off, flew a short distance, landed on the ground or on a tree, then the bird is not ready yet. You need to wait 2-3 days, wait for good weather and try again. Try not to feed the bird before the flight, hunger activates the instincts to search for food, thereby awakening the bird to flight. It is very useful for the departure of a bird if there is a flock of swifts nearby, since the bird, having flown out, immediately tries to find the flock and nest on it.

K. MIKHAILOV, candidate of biological sciences.

Swifts can be watched for hours. But, unfortunately, every year there are fewer and fewer of these amazing birds in the Moscow sky. Please tell us on the pages of the magazine about the life of swifts: what are they building nests from, can they sit on the ground, how do they raise chicks, what do they eat, where do they drink water in dry weather and where do they winter?

V. Sapozhnikov (Moscow).

By the middle - end of May, as soon as the really warm "summer" weather sets in, the city quarters are filled with shrill cries of long-winged birds rushing at high speed over the rooftops of houses. Black swifts have returned from African wintering. Their appearance marks the beginning of the avian summer, as most of the birds by this time are already landing on their nests. They also say that they arrive "on the back of a cyclone." True (or false) this statement can be easily checked 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 homeland.

The first days of the swifts joyfully - you can't say otherwise - are hovering over places dear to their hearts, but very soon they start building nests. Arrived late, you 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, since they are located in various kinds of potholes and narrow cracks under the roofs of tall stone buildings. But in the "low" quarters, swifts can nest at a low level: under the roofs of five-story buildings and even in the potholes of the balcony bases. It is not difficult to attract them to the birdhouse displayed on the balcony, if, of course, a flock of swifts have already chosen your house. Black Swifts do not nest in separate pairs in central Russia.

In settlements, swifts are often occupied by birdhouses (the nestlings of the starlings had already flown out by this time), expelling the 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, making nests in old woodpecker hollows, made on tall trees, especially in pines.

The nest itself is, of course, one name. It's just that the tray of a stone niche or hollow is lined with fluffs, feathers and scraps of wool, which the birds catch on the fly and then glue them together with the secretion of the salivary glands. 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. Grown chicks, leaving the nest, immediately begin flying independent life. Approximately in the middle - end of August, adults and young chicks fly south, so that in central Russia, swifts spend about three months.

Many people sometimes confuse swifts with swallows. In some ways, they really are similar: both are tireless flyers. But nevertheless, you can distinguish swifts at first glance: their wings are sickle-shaped and narrower, and they fly swiftly and straight, not as nimble as swallows; and usually higher. If you ever manage to hold a swift in your hands, then pay attention to its legs. 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 a flat surface. The swift's beak is also small, but the mouth is wide. This is understandable. Cutting through the warm air currents carrying myriads of midges, the swift picks up a mouthful of food, envelops it with saliva and then flies with this food lump to the nest. 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, they sweep over the very ground.

Swifts are excellent flyers (the best among birds) and can fly up to 100 kilometers per hour. On the day, they fly up to 1500 kilometers. Swifts can sleep in the air, flying at a height in large circles, but in the air they mate. They also drink and bathe in the summer. Excellent flying 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. This need arises during periods of long summer bad weather. If it gets cold and it rains, the swifts cannot replenish the energy costs for active life. Then the flock migrates to places with better feeding conditions, leaving the chicks "to fend for themselves." However, the chicks do not die, as they have an amazing feature: they fall into a daze, 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 still fledged) 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 the metabolism falls accordingly. All processes in the body are inhibited, and the chick can go without food for some time. It looks as if it is already dead, but it comes to life with warming. However, chicks of other birds have a short period of "cold numbness"; they can starve for a very short time. In swifts, it is large, and both small and
grown chicks. Moreover, during severe bad weather, for example, torrential rains, numbness 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 widespread. It inhabits all of Europe (except for the Far North) and the southern part of northern Asia, in the south - up to Palestine and the Himalayas. Black swifts overwinter in southern Africa and Asia.

It remains to say that swifts are a special order of birds, which are called long-winged. The closest relatives of swifts are the American hummingbirds, which are sometimes introduced into the same order of long-winged. There are 70 species of swifts in the world, most of them are similar to our black swift (tail with a weak fork), but there are also the so-called spiny-tailed swifts, in which the tail is cut off at the end, and the tail feathers are rigid, the tops of the rods protrude beyond tail edge in the form of sharp needles.

The black swift is the only species of swifts in the European part of Russia, but to the east of Altai to Kamchatka, Sakhalin and Primorye, the white-belted swift is much more common, which, as the name suggests, has a catchy white stripe on the upper tail. It is this swift that nests in the cities of Siberia and The Far East; the black swift lives in the east only up to Baikal. A representative of needle-tailed swifts also lives in the forests in the south of Siberia and the Far East of Russia. It is called spinytail or needletail - in different places in different ways.

If you go to rest in the Crimea or Ciscaucasia, you will surely see a larger (and faster) swift with a white belly. They call him that - white-bellied swift. This is a southerner.

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

Description of swifts

The inhabitants of cities and villages have long been accustomed to them. You won't surprise anyone with the presence of these birds on the streets. In some countries they were even given the nickname "feathered hustlers". Despite this, the swift is quite unusual bird. The swifts family has more than 16 speciesin. 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.

It is interesting!Swifts are a manifestation of the wonders of aerodynamics. Their unusual maneuverability is due in part to their ability to beat faster with one wing than the other in flight. Wings beating at different intervals allow the swift to make sharp turns without slowing down. This helps to outrun the insect by making a circle to catch it on the fly.

Such small birds can fly at a speed of about 170 km / h, while the flight of an ordinary swallow passes at a maximum speed of 80 km / h. The unique wing design allows for stunning results. Thanks to him, the wing has special flexibility and maneuverability during flight. The 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. sharp beakbut rather short. The eyes are dark in color. The swift's wings are curved and oblong, the tail is forked, long and straight.

Despite such powerful wings, the swift has very small and weak legs. The toes are short with long claws pointing forward. Because of this structure, young individuals are often unable to rise into the air from a flat surface. But on the other hand, the structure of the fingers helps them to cling to the ledges of the steep rocks.

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 can also be present on the bird's chest, tail zone, on the inner part of the neck and on the forehead. It looks impossible to determine the sex of the swift, even on close examination. There are no differences in the appearance of females and males.

It is the birds of the black swift species that are most common. They can often be seen darting in the air of 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. Color differences aside, the birds of these two species are very similar in body structure and behavior.

Character and lifestyle

Swifts are classified as swifts... Over 85 species of this order have been identified throughout the world. Among them there are both sedentary and migratory species. They nest most often in colonies, although they like to live in small flocks. Swift colonies can grow up to thousands of pairs. They lead an active lifestyle, staying awake from morning to late evening.

Historically, swifts have nested in hollows high on large trees. They still do not mind settling in this way in Scotland and Abernathy Forest. Today almost all swifts nest in colonies under the roofs of old buildings. The main connecting material for building houses is their own saliva. With a specialized salivary gland, they can produce large amounts of mucus that is

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 one is. He is extraordinarily lucky, since 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 properly. The singing of the black swift is compared to fine music.

It 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 long beautiful mustache and whitish eyebrows.

The body length of the needle-tailed swift varies from 19 to 22 cm, the width of unfolded 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 top is a light brown plumage color.

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

Habitat, habitats

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

Swifts diet

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

They are agile in the air, so they can easily catch flying insects with their own beak, like a butterfly net. Swifts are the only predator birds 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 the best weather conditions. This "life hack" can be done not only by adult swifts, but also by little chicks.

Babies are able to "sleep" for up to 8-9 days, while their older relatives and parents are absent from the nest in search of food sources. As a rule, swifts leave for winter quarters in warm regions 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 in cities and towns, as well as in mountains, forests and deserts. The choice of a 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 holes.

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

Among the materials will be present all kinds of fibers, feathers, small branches that the 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 home.

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

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

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

In total, there are more than 16 species of swifts in the world. They are distributed all over the world, except for Antarctica, the tundra part of Europe, north and east of Siberia. The most common in eastern Europe is the Black or Tower Swift. It is distinguished from other species by its color - from dark gray to bluish black.

It is mistakenly believed that a relative of a swift is a swallow. According to the biological classification, the swallow belongs to the passerine, and the swift to the swift. The closest relative is the hummingbird. They are similar to swallows only externally. Like the hummingbird, the swift does not sink to the ground. This is due to the structure of the wings and legs. He cannot swing his wide wings. And the short legs, the fingers on which are directed only in one direction, do not allow them to keep balance. Therefore, on earth, they are helpless and defenseless. Like hummingbirds, swifts fly at great speed. It can exceed one hundred kilometers per hour. Moreover, the swallows develop a speed of no more than 50-60 km / h. The fastest-flying swift - the Needle-tailed swift - develops a speed of about 140 km / h.

In the sky, a swift can be distinguished by its short tail and characteristic "kiiiiiiii". Unlike swallows, they fly in small flocks and without much pirouettes.

It is not for nothing that swifts are called "air marathon runners". Only during the period of feeding chicks (2-3 months) they fly a distance of more than 40,000 km. It's hard to believe, but for the first two years of their life, young birds do not descend on a hard surface at all. They do absolutely everything in the air - they eat, grow, sleep, groom, and mate. The fact that swifts even sleep in the air was accidentally discovered by a military pilot during the Second World War, when he shot down "some birds" at an altitude of 2 km. It was later found that during sleep, swifts wake up approximately every five seconds to flap their wings.

What do they eat?

Swifts feed exclusively on insects. Their mouth is like a net into which the caught insects are stuffed. Thus, in the throat of a swift, up to thousands of different insects can accumulate.

The eyes of the swifts from above and from the front are covered with dense feathers - "eyebrows" for protection from debris and insects.

Young swifts are whitish around the beak.

We have already figured out what the swift is and how exactly it differs from its "relative" swallow. Now you can find out how the swift begins its life.

Lifestyle

Young swifts reach sexual maturity in the second year of life. And they become "family men" in the third year. Active reproduction lasts only two years - the third and fourth. The search for a partner begins upon returning to the places of permanent nesting. They still find a mate in the air, mate and only after that acquire a nest.

For a nest in wildlife For swifts, crevices of rocks, holes on steep banks are suitable. In urban environments, they nest in cracks under roofs and balconies. According to ornithologists, swifts can also drive out smaller birds from already occupied places, and destroy their eggs or offspring. Personally, I, the author of the article, myself witnessed how the swifts drove pigeons out from under the balcony of my apartment. And all because the pigeons occupied the swifts' nest, in which they raised their offspring for several years.

There are cases when males entered into fights for a mate and / or nest. This is evidenced by the appearance of birds with bloody wings at the nests as a result of fights.

Swifts build their nest from straws, fluff, hair, that is, from everything that they can catch in the air. In nature, nests are located at least three meters above the ground.

Swift females in different habitats lay eggs in different time... But basically this process takes place from late May to early June. Swift clutch is two to three eggs. The incubation period (how many partners will incubate them) is from sixteen to twenty-two days. Both swifts hatch eggs. Due to inclement weather, the incubation period may increase.

As a rule, chicks do not appear at the same time, but with a gap of one or two days. The first chick always has advantages. The third, most often dies when unfavorable conditions occur.

Chicks are born completely naked and blind. Within two weeks, they open their eyes and begin to be covered with the first fluff.

A chick eats up to a thousand insects per day. They gain reserves of nutrients in case of adverse conditions. For example, on cloudy weather, when the parents fly away more than a hundred kilometers from the nesting site. Then the chicks, without damage to health, plunge into suspended animation. They can stay in this state for up to five days. After that, the supply of nutrients drops to a critical minimum, below which the chick dies.

The chicks are fed in the order of "the most hungry - the most well-fed". The swift, who has received its portion, moves back and the next one comes up in its place. After feeding, the chicks are immediately emptied from the nest, and the parents clean the nest of feces debris.

Chicks spend about forty days in the nest. Young individuals begin to get food for themselves on a par with their parents shortly before migration.

Feeding a swift chick

It's not uncommon for chicks to fall out of the nest. Chicks that are not yet adapted to independent life in development die. But if in the wild, falling out of the nest is one hundred percent death, then in the city they have a chance. A person can become this chance for them. But in order to raise a healthy bird, you need to know exactly and strictly follow the rules for feeding and caring for a swift chick. This section of the article will be written from personal experience of feeding a two-week-old swift chick. Looking ahead, I can say that at the end of the summer I released a young and healthy swift.

If you find a swift chick, then immediately examine it. Is there no blood, are all the bones intact. If you notice damage, immediately contact the nearest veterinary clinic. Do not be alarmed by the white pieces of skin on the chick's body. They appear in the process of plumage and do not pose a threat to human health.

Try feeding him right away. In no case should you feed with bread or meat. You must kill either a fly or a small butterfly. Insects should be of medium size, because the chick is probably weakened and cannot swallow a large amount of food at once.

To feed a swift chick, you must:

• Gently squeeze its beak on the sides at the base.
• As soon as he opens it at least slightly, gently open the beak with your finger, lightly pressing the lower part of the beak. You cannot press on the top one, because it can break, and this is certain death.
• Simultaneously with the opening of the beak, insert an insect into it and in the literal sense of the word with a finger, best of all with a little finger, push it into the very throat. Only in this case will the chick swallow the insect!

Fear not, the chick will not choke this way. In the nest, they themselves open their mouths as wide as possible, and their parents put food right into their throats. Birds do not know how to chew food, as we do.

On the first day of the chick's stay in the house, it needs to be fed every one to three hours. Between feeding sessions, you need to give the chick one or two drops of water from a pipette. They get the main liquid from insects.

Your swift chick should eat ONLY flies, mosquitoes, butterflies, spiders! That is, only one of those insects that swifts can catch in the air or find by clinging to the wall of the house. But you cannot feed the swifts with ladybirds. It is best to feed them with flies.

The nest can be equipped in a small box. Pour wood litter for cat litter at the bottom. It is desirable if no direct light will enter the box. In nature, swifts are in eternal twilight for the first 40 days.

How does a hatched chick eat?

Within three days, the chick should come to its senses and already actively respond to feeding. Over the next one to three weeks, he will begin to quietly squeak. This does not mean that he is hungry. The midday feeding schedule is every three to five hours.

The chick will regulate the amount of food consumed during one feeding session by itself. On average, at this age, he will need from 80 to 120 flies per day. When fishing, one should try not to kill, but to stun the flies. The collected "food" must be stored in the refrigerator. Then the flies will be alive, there will be no rotting, but they will be in suspended animation. This is the best way to store food.

Starting from the second half of July (I picked up the chick in mid-June), I introduced zoofobus worms into its diet. Sold at any pet store. For feeding, they must be divided into two or three parts. Zoophobes are very nutritious worms, therefore one worm in one feeding session.

Now the swift will grow its feathers until the end of August. The chick will be ready to fly when the wings are longer than the tail and the tips are crossed. A few days before departure, the swift will begin to refuse food. Wing crossing and refusal to eat are clear signs that the bird is ready to fly free.

You can distinguish the chick by the light "scaly" pattern on the brown plumage of the head and wings, by the short feathers of the wings and tail, the bases of which seem to "sit" in bluish tubes. Already in a day or two, the haircut will begin to open its beak at the sight of tweezers with food and wait for the nurse to appear. You need to feed him 5 - 7 times a day (once every 2-3 hours, a night break of about 7 hours) with a "swift" mixture.

Mixture 1: lean beef, boiled chicken egg, finely grated, ant pupae ("ant egg"), mealworms (they can be crumbled with scissors). Mealworms can be replaced by wild-caught insects, or bloodworms (only fresh!), Or maggots (scalded).
Mix 2 composition:(for long-term keeping of the swift, the composition of the feed should be more varied). lean raw ground beef - 20%, steeply cooked egg (crushed on a grater) - 25%, cottage cheese (non-acidic, preferably boiled and squeezed) - 20%, mealworms or ant pupae - 20%, carrots (grated on a fine grater) - 10%, infant formula - 5%
Mix composition 3: minced beef heart - 30%, hard-boiled chicken egg (crushed) - 25%, cottage cheese - 15%, carrots (grated on a fine grater) - 15%, insects (mealworms, crickets, etc.) - 10%, for children nutritional mixture - 5%.
(These mixtures are also suitable for feeding nightjars)
The mixture is made into pea-sized balls and fed 4 to 5 balls at a time. You can water the chick from a pipette or simply moisten the feed balls with water when feeding.

It is good to keep the chick in a cardboard shoe box, on the bottom of which there is paper and sawdust. Sawdust should be changed every two to three days. Above the box must be covered with a lid, but holes must be made in the walls and lid for ventilation. In such a box, haircuts sit quietly, since these conditions mimic its natural nest well enough. It is not difficult to carry a box with you if you need to be away from home for more than two or three hours, and you can feed the swift on the road and at work.

The she-haircutter eats and grows, and finally its wings become long, like those of an adult, the “tubes” almost disappear, and the bird begins to behave restlessly - flaps its wings, refuses to eat: the chick is preparing for flight. After making sure that he uncontrollably wants to fly, you go with him to the window or to the balcony, it is better where there is a large space in front of the house and where other swifts fly, and easily throw your swift into the air. Your pet will fall off your hand and be carried away into its element, for which you, in fact, raised it. But make sure, just in case, if he accidentally fell somewhere on the ground.

2. What to do if you have an adult swift.

An adult swift is a dark brown bird with long, longer than the tail, wings, with a light speck on the throat under the beak.

An adult Swift should be kept in an open-top cage (large box, aquarium), lined with dense material from the inside. The cage is cleaned from above. You can put in the cage inclined cloth "curtains". Clinging to the matter, the swift will sit on the wall, the plumage will not be damaged, and it will be possible to release it after recovery. Temporarily, you can, in principle, overexpose the swift on the curtain, but you need a curtain such that it would not be a pity to get it dirty. In this case, a "curtain" is attached to a curtain made of another fabric, under which the swift could crawl, as if into a shelter. But be careful, not all swifts sit on the curtain, they may tend to fly to the floor and run away under the table / wardrobe / bed etc.
To feed an adult swift, the bird owner will have to push the lumps of food directly into the throat - with tweezers or just with a finger.

In most cases, you have to force feed the bird. Place the swift on the table. With one hand (left) hold the bird behind its back, preventing it from opening its wings, and at the same time with the index and thumb (of the same hand!), Lightly press on the corners of the bird's jaws (they are right under its eyes) - this will force the bird to open its beak. Open the mouth wider with the other hand and push the lump of food there - as deep as possible, behind the tongue, otherwise the bird will try to spit out the food. After a while, if the swift realizes that his food consists of the offered lumps, he will begin to grab food from the tweezers, and this will greatly facilitate the feeding process.

After 5 - 7 days, swifts with light bruises, as well as birds that were found in a state of hungry numbness, will recover and they can be released.
It is necessary to release the swift on a warm sunny day, when there are many insects in the air. For the release, it is better to choose a place where swifts fly. The bird must be thrown as high as possible in the air and tracked to see if it has descended to the ground. As a rule, a swift cannot take off from the ground.

If the found swift has a broken wing, and there is no hope of a complete recovery, it is more humane to put this unfortunate bird to sleep. But if, nevertheless, it is decided to keep her at home, then you will have to specially equip the cage, make a box for breeding mealworms and be patient.

3. What if you want to keep a non-flying swift?

The minimum cage for keeping a black swift should be 60x60 cm at the base and 70 cm in height. The cage will be serviced from above, so the entire top of it should be open. Removable walls made of dense fabric are suspended from the inside on three sides of the cage. A swift, clinging to its claws, will climb these walls or, catching on, will rest.

As the fabric walls become dirty, they will have to be removed for washing, so there should be two sets of curtains. You also need to put something soft on the bottom of the cage, pour sawdust or put napkins, since at first, trying to take off, the swift will fall to the bottom of the cage, and the litter will soften the impact.

For sleep and rest, you need to make a hanging house, measuring 15x10 cm at the base and about 8 cm high. The front wall of the house is made half closed. The top cover must be removable. This will make it easier to wash and change the litter. You need to hang 2-3 small feeders on the walls of the cage. Placing live mealworms or crickets in hanging feeders can teach the swift how to take feed on its own. The first time you will have to feed the bird with tweezers with a "striga" mixture or a mixture intended for feeding nightjars.

One Leningrad birdwatcher kept two swifts with damaged wings at home under the conditions described above. One of the swifts lived with her for 2 years, the second - 4. In nature, according to ringing data, the average life span of a black swift is a little more than 4 years. However, some individuals live up to 15 - 20 years.

Taking the above-described method of keeping swifts as a basis, you can create even more comfortable conditions for the bird and teach it to eat independently from feeders suspended on the walls of the cage.

IMPORTANT:

To our e-mail, we received a response from Lyudmila Filippova, who has been saving swifts for 6 years, about the most effective method for feeding small swift chicks with insects.

“They can’t do anything but insects. From everything else, they lose flight feathers, if not on the ground, then after being released into the sky, during the transition to insects.
At the "childhood" swift age, when feathers are laid, feeding NOT on insects means providing the swift with disability for life, depriving him of the sky, dooming him to slow death on earth.

Thousands of sad topics can be found when people are "led" by recipes from the Internet (meat, eggs, cottage cheese, carrots and other horrors for swifts) A mixture of an even safer recipe (I will give below) is permissible only for the first two days, until you catch and freeze insects for future use and at the same time, you will decide the issue of the supply of food insects (I myself went and sent my husband to the neighboring region), now it is possible to order them online with delivery to your (maybe to the nearest) city, you need to look for information. You can go out to beekeepers at the bazaar and ask them for drones and drone larvae. Freeze for future use. Their swifts eat well.

Here are the addresses, by city, where you can find insects for swifts.
http://www.mybirds.ru/forums/index.php?showtopic\u003d87268

While the issue of insects is being resolved - recipes for a mixture that can be given: (do not give option number 1 for a long time, and option number 2 can be given for a long time)

№1:
- Immerse low-fat homemade cottage cheese in boiling water and immediately pour onto cheesecloth, cool and grind (you can use a grater) - take 20% into this mixture,
- dry gammarus (food for aquarium fish WITHOUT additives) rub into powder through a metal sieve; - take 40% of the amount of the mixture;
- maggot chopped into minced meat + caught NON-POISONOUS insects (flies, gadflies, moths, and dragonflies, locusts and grasshoppers are frozen from worms, then hard paws, shields, wings are removed) - all this is crushed with scissors and added to the mixture, the more the better - more than 50% of the total volume.

For one feeding, they feed the size of a hazelnut nut - small peas, (they will turn out to be 8-10 pcs.)

You can feed from a syringe without a needle - 1.5 - 2 ml. for one feeding.

IMPORTANT: If the haircut is weak (the mucous membranes in the mouth are not pink, pale, grayish), then they are fed with smaller doses (0.5 ml thinner every 50 minutes), but more often. The haircut is warming. Before meals, a drop of 2-5% glucose in the beak (not more than 4 times a day and three days)

If you wait a long time for food insects, then the option

№2:
Buy more maggots from the fishing store. Chop them finely (it is convenient to use sharp hairdressing scissors on a saucer) and enrich this "minced meat" with minced meat from wild insects, and a little to the same gammarus ground into powder. Those. make the mixture without cottage cheese. And from maggots, wild insects, and gammarus.

You can fill such an insect mixture with 10 syringes at once and into the freezer. The day will be free for you to hunt for wild insects. Then just heat the syringe in a water bath (in warm water) and feed. Then again make such a mixture, and again a day's supply in the freezer.

Feeding may need to be forced. "

In late spring, it often happens that chicks fall out of the nest. Some people manage to survive. Sometimes we have to pick up a wounded adult bird. What to do if a swift is such a foundling? How to feed this extremely picky bird at home? But let's first define who is in front of us: a swallow (there are several types of them) or a swift. In rural women, 3 toes on the foot are directed forward, and one is directed backward. In urban residents of black swifts, everything is different. They have 4 toes pointing forward like a foot. And adults are even easier to identify: the swallow has a white shirt-front on its chest.

So, you are convinced that this is not a sparrow, not a wagtail or a killer whale, but a real Apus apus. In Russian - How to feed your foundling at home? In the EU countries there are special shelters for wild animals and birds, where specialists are engaged in their care. We have all hope - for the mercy and patience of ordinary people. But, in addition to kindness and a desire to help, you also need to know about what to give to these foundlings for food, 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 parents' beak and compressed into a lump with the help of their saliva. Birds thrust such food deep into the throat of the young. What should a city dweller do when he finds a haircut? If the chick is very weak, first you need to water it a little.

Need with 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. We carefully open the beak with the right one and fix it with the nail of the index finger of the left hand. And then drop the liquid into the tongue. If the bird swallows the water, then all is not lost yet, and it makes sense to fight for its life. A weakened haircut must be provided with heating (lamp or heating pad). Place it in a box or bowl (never in a cage) and let it eat as soon as possible. swift? At first - after all, time is pressing - offer him baby meat puree. Roll up the ball and place it on the base of your tongue with rounded tweezers.

But such a diet should not be constant - a maximum of two days. Do not forget that he is insectivorous - this black swift. How to feed such a fussy man at home? Bread is contraindicated, as are 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 in specialized stores for animals or through online delivery of wax moth larvae and crickets. Contacting your local beekeeping association will provide you with drones. Fly larvae are available at fisherman stores. Half of them need to be put in a warm place to hatch adult insects, and the rest in the refrigerator.

You will face much greater difficulties if an adult swift falls into your hands. How to feed a bird accustomed to catching insects on the fly at home? Until your pet recovers and is able to get its own food, you will have to provide it with live flies. And don't forget to water your bird every time after feeding.

How to hatch a swift chick?

Answer:

Chicks and very young swifts can be distinguished from adults by thin white edges along the edge of feathers, as well as by a brightly distinguished light spot on the throat and around the beak. In adult swifts, there are no edges on the feathers, and the spot on the throat is almost not prominent.

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 sheepsheads fall out of the nest much ahead of schedule, mainly during heat waves or severe thunderstorms. In this case, looking at the wrong side of the wing, you will see that the bases of the feathers are hidden in thin hemp tubes.

If a chick has got to you, and its wings and plumage are in order, then your mission is only to feed it until the moment when it becomes ready to fly. Depending on the age at which it came to you, this can take from 1-2 days to 3-4 weeks. Swifts chicks grow rather slowly and usually reach "flight" condition 41-42 days after hatching. On the other hand, unlike young birds of other birds, young shearers do not need to be taught anything - all the necessary skills are embedded in them at the genetic level.

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

Where to begin?

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

If its feathers are stained, gently wash off the dirt with warm water. At the same time, you cannot rub the feathers, wet them strongly, and even more so bathe the whole bird - this will cause hypothermia. Also, do not use soap or other detergents to avoid damaging the feathers and delicate skin of the bird.

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

Then the bird should be watered. The easiest way to do this is by dripping 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 very emaciated, it is better to give it to drink not with pure water, but with a glucose solution.

The first feed should be started 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, like a shoe box. Make holes in the lid for ventilation, and cover the bottom with napkins in several layers or a soft cloth. It is also good to make there a low elevation on which the bird can comfortably settle down: a step curved out of cardboard wrapped in flannel, or a ring rolled from a paper towel. The mat should be replaced as soon as it becomes dirty. Chicks spend most of their time 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.

How to feed the swift?

Professional shear rescuers will unanimously tell you: you need to feed the swift with insects. And they will be right. Flies, mosquitoes, cricket bellies, and small cockroaches are ideal food for swift. However, getting insects in the right amount is often very difficult, so you will have to resort to replacement mixtures.

The simplest, most affordable and nutritious for swift is a mixture of low-fat baby meat puree without salt (for example, Agusha, beef or turkey), low-fat cottage cheese and Daphnia Magna fish feed, which, unlike live cockroaches or crickets, can found in any pet store. Puree and slightly dried cottage cheese are mixed in approximately equal parts until a homogeneous gruel, after which daphnia are poured into the mixture until it takes the form of a granular semi-dry mass. In the same mixture, it is useful to add one or two tablets of calcium gluconate (available at any pharmacy), crushed into powder, as well as insects that have come to your disposal - the more, the better. Do not cook a lot of the mixture at once; it spoils quickly.

From the resulting mixture, balls are made about the size of a hazelnut. One such ball is enough just for one feeding. At the very beginning of feeding, when you are just setting up feeding, it is better to make smaller portions - this way it will be easier to shove them into the chick's beak.

The chick should be fed slightly warm, warmed to about body temperature. Do not give food directly from the refrigerator.

A swift chick should be fed 7-9 times a day, every one and a half to two hours, from early morning to late evening. You do not need to feed at night, except in the case of exhaustion: then you will have to feed the chick in the first couple of days at night. The volume of a single portion of feed for an emaciated bird should not exceed the size of a pea, the interval between feedings is 40 minutes; then both are gradually increased to the usual rate.

You cannot feed the swift with worms, especially earthworms: in addition to the fact that such food is almost not digested, there is still a great risk of infection. It is also undesirable to use maggots: they, again, can cause indigestion. You can not feed the swift and an egg: in the future, this has a bad effect on the plumage.

Feeding

The most difficult thing is to establish feeding. Swifts do not know how to peck from a bowl: adults grab prey in the air, and parents shove lumps of insects cobbled together with saliva into their beaks. But the chick that came to you does not yet understand that he is being offered 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; open the beak on the right by hooking the side with your fingernail or gently pulling the lower part down. Hold the beak open with the index finger of your left hand, while with your right hand, meanwhile, put a lump of food there. Then make sure the feed is swallowed; you can stroke the chick's goiter, 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 enter your nostrils.

In the future, before opening the beak forcibly, hold a lump of food in front of his 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", feed it forcefully and try another time. After a while, he will figure out what's what, and will take the offered food himself. From this point on, you no longer need to take it in your hands when feeding, just stretch a ball of food, holding it in your fingers or putting a toothpick on the blunt end.

Watch out for the scissor's excrement, and adjust his diet if anything is wrong. They should stand out regularly and be black and white, uniform, enclosed in a thin film that allows them to be easily removed from the nest. Swifts parents do just that; follow their example and keep the chick clean.

When did the chick grow?

When folded, the wings of an adult swift are about 16 cm, it is clearly noticeable that the tail is bifurcated, the total length of the bird is 16-17 cm. The tips of the wings go 5 cm behind the tail, the fan of feathers is completely cleared of tubules-stumps. The chick, ready to fly, is constantly trying to get out of the box, restless, opening and pulling its wings. Preparing for flight, the chick often refuses food, losing weight up to 40-45 grams (sitting in the nest, it can get fat up to 60, but before the start of flights it will 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 the bird if the attempt to take off is unsuccessful. In addition, the swift needs space to gain desired speed... Lift the swift on an outstretched arm, let him look around. Usually, before takeoff, he empties his intestines and begins to tremble finely, warming up the muscles. At this moment, you can lightly throw the swift into the air; it will come off your palm and fly.

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