Swallows: birds - messengers of spring
Swallows - birds of passage pertaining to the detachmentpasserines. They are known to everyone from childhood. Remember the fairy tale "Thumbelina"! The rescued bird helped the heroine of the fairy tale to escape from the groom-mole. Long since this bird has been treated with love in Russia. Even the name of the bird - "swallow" - sounds tenderly, gently. She lives next to a person, trusts his kindness. In spring swallows fly from the south, and people know that with their appearance, frosts disappear. Many people's signs are associated with this bird.
Sometimes it is called a human companion. There are more than 120 species of these birds. In Russia, the most common are three species: killer whale (or village), Daurian swallow and urban. They are more known to man.
The most virtuoso in summer swallow - killer whale. She has a long forked tail, and she settles on the beams under the roof of wooden houses or sheds. Molds the nests in such a way that they resemble bowls. The Daurian swallow has a difference - the back of its red color. Its name received on life: it settles in the Amur region. He chooses a bigger house in the village, more imposing, because he builds a larger nest than a country swallow. The entrance to it is on the side and looks like a pipe, on a bottle.
Urban swallows are birds that bear the name of "funnels". Their growth is smaller, the abdomen is white, the feet are feathered, and the tail, unlike the killer whale and Dahurian, is cut out poorly. For housing chooses stone houses. Under the cornice or under the peak of the roof, above the balcony, makes a small nest.
Swallows of all kinds build nests with the help ofthe earth, moistened with saliva. Their saliva is sticky, the nest holds tight. The swallow is a migratory bird, sometimes its urban variety changes the metropolis and settles on a stony precipice, placing a nest between folds of loose rock. Such places are called nesting places. The city swallow is also attracted by sandy cliffs. She uses the abandoned burrows of her sisters-coasters. Surprisingly, the swallows are birds that are not afraid of the noise of cars and nest even in garages! When laying eggs the male in good weather brings food to his girlfriend, but when the rain manages to grab the midge only for himself. It is interesting to watch from the balcony, as the swallows-parents feed their chicks. "Zheltorotiki" actively squeak, open their mouths wide, and the father or mother deliver the mosquito, mosquito in their beaks. From a window of city apartments it is possible to observe, as they train chicks fly. Bird swallow, a photo of which can be found in every biology textbook, differs in flight from other birds. She flies very fast, often turns, turns zigzag.
Interesting is the fact that they never sit on trees. They rest on people's ropes, telegraph wires,
Autumn comes, at the end of September these birds fly away. But before departure hundreds of swallows can be seen on telegraph wires. They seem to say goodbye to people. And it becomes somehow sad ...
