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Post by monkeyrepublic on May 26, 2015 13:58:40 GMT
Hi, WABI folk.
I'm a bit of fan of swifts and was chuffed to find a Springwatch webcam watching a nest this year.
I notice that they line it with feathers. Wondered how they collect them, swifts not being much given to foraging on the forest floor.
Anyone have any insights?
Jacob
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Post by dogghound on May 26, 2015 15:31:25 GMT
They gather all of their nesting material on the wing believe it or not, just like when they feed. It can be more variable than just feathers with paper, fluffy seeds and straw also used.
Do you have a link to the webcam? It would be interesting to watch, you don't often get to see into active swift nests, thanks.
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Post by monkeyrepublic on May 26, 2015 15:39:27 GMT
Dogghound! Very nice to see you again! I wondered if that would be the answer, but just find it hard to imagine. Each swift finds sufficient just drifting on the breeze?! Very high-resource activity collecting like that, I would have thought. How do we know? Have they been observed doing it (how the heck do you observe swift activity?)? They were on this webcam last night: www.bbc.co.uk/events/e2czc8/live/cfg2fx. Seems to be a gull right now. Never had the same fondness for gulls. |
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Post by monkeyrepublic on May 26, 2015 16:06:32 GMT
Alright, I am warming to those spotty gull chicks!
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Post by dogghound on May 26, 2015 16:30:56 GMT
You too MonkeyRepublic, brilliant to see everyone back on here.
Thanks for the link.
Yes it's fairly well documented. They generally don't land unless it's to nest or roost. They have no other way of collecting nesting material other than in free flight. As a species which spends so much time on the wing it probably hawks for this material close to the nest site during the building phase.
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