What do swift chicks eat at home. Black swift (Apus apus). Feeding a chick of a swift

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. in. 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 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 able to fly 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, awake from morning to late evening.

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.

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 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.

It 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 is one of the most difficult species for successful nursing. This is a very difficult task for beginners, so for a swift chick it will be best if you find an experienced specialist who can handle this task.

If you do not have such an opportunity, then below are detailed explanations of what needs to be done in order to safely feed and raise a swift.

Swifts should never be kept in bird cages, because they will fight and damage their plumage. If the flight feathers are damaged, the swift cannot fly. It is best to keep the chick in a half-open plastic or cardboard box. At the bottom of the box, you can lay absorbent paper towels that need to be changed regularly so that the swift chick does not get dirty in its litter. In the corner of the box, it is desirable to put a "nest" made of wood or cork or other material.

If the chick is alone, he will just sit quietly in the nest. But if there are two or more swift chicks in the nest, they clean each other's feathers, while you can hear how they make quiet inviting sounds. After feeding the swifts, these sounds sometimes subside for a while, but, when hungry, the chicks begin to make them again, at first quietly, and then with increasing force. When the time of departure comes for the chicks of swifts, they cease to make typical nesting sounds.

Feeding chicks of swifts

Black swifts are exclusively insectivorous birds. Adult birds feed the chicks several times a day with compressed wads of food, consisting of various types of insects caught on the fly. If possible, feed chicks of swifts seven times a day with suitable ingredients from several types of insects.

Here is a sample diet for baby swifts aged 3 to 6 weeks: 2 or 3 house crickets, 3 or 4 drones, 1/2 wax moth larvae, a few fly larvae (fishing bait), flies 1/6 teaspoon dried insects (mixture for insectivores, you can buy at the pet store), you can add complex vitamins and calcium supplements, you must first consult with an ornithologist.

You can not feed the chicks of swifts with bread, grains, flour or earthworms. These products are completely unsuitable and may result in death or malformation of feathers, rendering the bird unable to fly normally. The mixture for each feeding of swift chicks should be freshly prepared.

Swift chick feeding technique

Before feeding, you need to wrap the swift chick in a paper or rag napkin and carefully hold the bird in your left hand. Then, very carefully, one must open the beak with the fingernail of the right hand and gently insert the index finger of the left hand into the beak from the side to keep it open. All this must be done very carefully so as not to break or bend the beak. The beak of the swifts is quite fragile.

Then, still gently, you place a piece of food deep down the chick's throat with blunt, rounded tweezers. If the food is put in shallowly, then the chick can push it out or throw it out by shaking its head. If a swift chick tries to suck on your finger, don't stop him, as this helps with feeding. This makes it much easier to give food that is readily swallowed.

When is a swift chick ready to fly?

Birds are ready to fly when their long wing feathers are completely cleared of light protective tubes. The flight feathers of swifts should be approximately 16 cm long and extend no less than 3.5 cm beyond the tail feathers. Swifts have no pre-flight practice. Having flown out of the nest, they simply fly and remain in the air for two years until they start nesting. However, swift chicks strengthen their flight muscles by performing “push-ups”, pressing their wings to the floor and rising high above the surface.

To release a swift chick into nature, you need to choose a large open space, in case something goes wrong, the bird can be easily seen. For release, swifts need space and some elevation above the ground. You need to take the bird in your hands and throw the bird into the air so that the bird can gain height. But if the swift did not fly up, but glided to the ground, then it is too early to release it, you need to take the swift chick home and continue feeding, repeat the release attempt in a few days.

On the day of release, the weather should be clear and, if possible, dry for the next 2-3 days in a southerly direction, as the birds will head straight for Africa.
Fledglings of black swifts do not receive any help from their parents. From the very beginning, they are able to fly to perfection and achieve everything on their own.

We bring to your attention one of the methods of feeding swifts, which has been practiced by St. Petersburg ornithologists for many years.

1. What to do if a chick fell out of the nest fell into your hands?

You can distinguish a nestling by a light “scaly” pattern on the brown plumage of the head and wings, by short feathers of the wings and tail, the bases of which seem to “sit” in bluish tubes. After a day or two, the shearling 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.

Composition of mixture 1: lean beef meat, boiled chicken egg, grated on a fine grater, ant pupae (“ant egg”), flour worms (they can be chopped with scissors). Meal worms can be replaced with insects caught in nature, or bloodworms (only fresh!), Or maggots (scalded).

Composition of mixture 2:(for a long-term maintenance of a swift, the composition of the feed should be more diverse). lean raw ground beef - 20%, hard boiled chicken egg (chopped on a grater) - 25%, cottage cheese (non-acidic, better boiled and squeezed) - 20%, flour worms or ant pupae - 20%, carrots (grated on a fine grater) – 10%, infant formula – 5%

Composition of mix 3: minced beef heart - 30%, hard-boiled chicken egg (chopped) - 25%, cottage cheese - 15%, carrots (grated on a fine grater) - 15%, insects (meal worms, crickets, etc.) - 10%, children nutrient mixture - 5%.

(These mixtures are also suitable for rearing nightjars)

The mixture is made into pea-sized balls and fed 4 to 5 balls per feeding. You can water the chick with a pipette or simply moisten the feed balls with water when feeding.

It is good to keep the chick in a cardboard shoe box, at the bottom of which paper is laid and sawdust is poured. Sawdust should be changed every two or three days. From above, the box must be covered with a lid, but holes should be made in the walls and lid for ventilation. In such a box, the shearling sits calmly, since these conditions imitate his natural nest quite well. It is easy 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 shearling 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 to fly. After making sure that he wants to fly irresistibly, you go with him to the window or to the balcony, preferably 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 fly into its element, for which, in fact, you raised it. But just in case, make sure that the lion does not accidentally fall somewhere on the ground.

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

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

An adult swift should be kept in a cage with an open top (large box, aquarium), sheathed with dense material from the inside. The cage is cleaned from above. You can put cloth inclined "curtains" in the cage. Clinging to the matter, the swift will sit on the wall, it will not damage the plumage, and it will be possible to release it after recovery. Temporarily it is possible, in principle, to 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, another “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 under the table / closet / bed etc.

To feed an adult swift, the owner of the bird will have to push the lumps of food directly into the throat - with tweezers or just a finger.

In most cases, you have to force-feed the bird. Put the swift on the table. With one hand (left hand), hold the bird behind its back, preventing the wings from opening, and at the same time, with the index and thumb (of the same hand!) Slightly press on the corners of the bird's jaws (they are right under its eyes) - this will make the bird open its beak. With the other hand, open the swift's mouth wider and push a lump of food into it - as deep as possible, behind the tongue, otherwise the bird will try to spit out the food. After a while, if the swift understands that its food consists of the offered lumps, it will begin to grab the 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 stupor, will recover, and they can be released into the wild.

You need to release the swift on a warm sunny day, when there are a lot of insects in the air. For release, it is better to choose a place where swifts fly. The bird needs to be thrown as high as possible into the air and make sure that the lion does not descend to the ground. As a rule, the swift cannot take off from the ground.

If the found swift has a broken wing, and there is no hope for a full recovery, it is more humane to euthanize this unfortunate bird. But if it is nevertheless decided to keep it at home, then you will have to specially equip the cage, make a box for breeding flour worms 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 in size at the base and 70 cm in height. The cage will be serviced from above, so the entire top of it must be open. From the inside, on three sides of the cage, removable walls made of dense fabric are suspended. Swift, clinging with claws, will climb these walls or, having hooked, rest.

As the fabric walls get dirty, they will have to be removed for washing, so there should be two sets of curtains. At the bottom of the cage, you also need to put something soft, 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 blow.

For sleep and rest, you need to make a hanging house, 15x10 cm in size 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 bedding. On the walls of the cage you need to hang 2-3 small feeders. By putting live flour worms or crickets in hanging feeders, you can teach the swift to take food on its own. At first, you will have to feed the bird with tweezers with a “swift” mixture or a mixture intended for feeding nightjars.

One Leningrad bird lover 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, the average life expectancy of a black swift is a little more than 4 years. However, some individuals live up to 15 - 20 years.

Taking as a basis the method of keeping swifts described above, it is possible to create even more comfortable conditions for the bird and teach it to feed on its own from feeders suspended on the walls of the cage.

MARTLET
(Apus apus)
Kingdom: Animals
Type: Chordates
Class: Birds
Order: Swifts
Family: Swift
Genus: Swifts
Species: Black Swift

This bird is the most frequent patient during the summer period. Especially when the chicks appear, and they begin to grow feathers and try to get up on the wing.

The swift is a small bird, it is similar in size to a sparrow, has long wings that, when folded, protrude beyond the tail. The shape of the head resembles the head of a bird of prey. At first glance, the eyes of the swift are black, but if you look closely at them, you can see the pupils, this is such a natural protection for the swift, since the swifts are under the bright sun all day.

They often confuse the swift with the swallow, they have an external resemblance, but the swallows have a white breast. The plumage of the swift has a brownish-black color with a slight greenish tint. In summer, in the sun, the feathers burn out strongly, and the color becomes paler. The beak and legs of the bird are black. On the paws, the fingers are small and all four are directed forward. The wing length reaches 15-18 cm, the weight of an adult bird ranges from 60-110 g. To distinguish a swift from a swallow, you need to compare their fingers on their paws. As we already know, the swift has all 4 fingers pointing forward, while the swallow has only three forward and one back. Nature does nothing for nothing, the swift needs such an arrangement of fingers so that, like a climber, he can climb the back walls and trees. But it is easier for swallows with such an arrangement of fingers to sit on branches.

Swift inhabits almost all of Europe, with the exception of its tundra part, it can be found in Northwest Africa. It inhabits the territory beyond the Urals and up to Transbaikalia, capturing the Liaodun Peninsula, spreading north to 62-65 ° north latitude, south to Palestine, Syria and the Himalayas. For winter, black swifts fly to Africa, occupying its entire southern part from the equator to the southern tip of the mainland, as well as the island of Madagascar. At this point in time, the swift can be considered 100% an urban bird. Its nests are also found in rural areas, especially where there are stone buildings - churches, calves, cowsheds and grain stores. On the territory of Transbaikalia, the black swift lives only in forests, and in urban conditions it is replaced by another species - the white-belted swift.

Black swifts in Finland nest both in forests and in places where people live. Swifts have certain ecological features that scientists have discovered. One of them means that black swifts arrive late, and their arrival means the onset of stable warm weather. However, swifts do not arrive all at once, as has recently been suggested. Ornithologists in England have found that the arrival of birds is extended in time and lasts depending on weather conditions, on average this period ranges from 18 to 27 days. Most often, swifts arrive in small batches, with breaks of one or two or even several days.

Two or three days after arrival, black swifts start building a nest. Construction lasts 8 days. After the nest is built, the female Most often, she lays 2-3 eggs. As a rule, there is one clutch per year. Both birds sit on the eggs. The duration of the incubation period for swifts ranges from 11-16 days. The weather influences the timing of incubation. In cold, rainy weather, swifts may lack food, and thus spend very little time in the nest, thereby disrupting the hatching process. There are times when birds get rid of eggs, this is a kind of survival instinct in a hungry time.

Hatched chicks leave the nest at 38-39 days, and in unfavorable years they can stay in the nest for up to 56 days. Black swift chicks are strictly homothermal (warm-blooded) creatures. When fasting, the body temperature of the chicks becomes unstable, and sometimes drops to 20*C. However, the bird does not suffer from it, because when the temperature drops, the swifts fall into a temporary stupor, and in this state they are able to survive without harm to themselves fasting for 9 or even 12 days. This phenomenon is due to the fact that in places where black swifts live, summers are different and there are colds, and as a result, there is a lack of food. When the chicks fall into a stupor, adult birds leave them unattended and migrate for several days to places where food conditions are better. This phenomenon is known as summer or weather migration. Swifts fly away from nesting places at a distance of 40-70 km.

Swifts sleep hanging on an almost vertical surface, they spend the night on the foliage of trees, or on roofs, attics of buildings, or in nests.

Help 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 the large primary feathers, the presence of tubules from which the feathers open, and white speckles 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 the plumage. We examine the wings, paws for grasses, bruises and fractures. If the wing is damaged, it will be visible externally, the diseased wing will be lower, it will be below shoulder level. When examining, always compare paired body parts. Spread the feathers on the wings and inspect for hematomas, wounds and thickenings that may indicate a violation of the integrity of the tissues. The same inspection should be carried out on the paws. Carefully inspect the breastbone, especially the keel and the presence of muscles on the breastbone. If the keel sticks out strongly and the muscular frame is smoothed along the edges, then this may indicate a possible exhaustion of the bird. Here the bird will need to be fed. If the wing or foot dangles, then this may indicate a possible fracture. In this case, you need to urgently see a specialist. Its effectiveness depends on the timely assistance provided.

If there are no external injuries, but the bird is lethargic and weakened, then infectious diseases should be ruled out. Here you need to take tests for bird flu, ornithosis, salmonellosis, protozoa, helminths, bacteriological culture and fungi. During the examination, observe personal hygiene measures. Wash hands before and after contact and clean up litter 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 cannot actually forage. First of all, you need to check for the presence of a swallowing reflex. Take an insulin syringe with a removable head, draw 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, it will be noticeable when it swallows. This is important for feeding in the beak.

When feeding, it is important to remember that swifts are insectivorous birds and the basis of their diet should be insects. Most often, chicks are picked up on the street. Under natural conditions, adult birds feed chicks (about 50-70 times a day) with compressed wads 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 still, insects cannot be dispensed with, otherwise the feather will become fragile and brittle. And so, the following insects can be used to feed swifts: crickets, drones, wax moths, fly larvae and ant eggs. You can not give flour worms, there is a risk of picking up a helminthic invasion. You can not give bread and grains. (It is not recommended to use ready-made food for insectivorous birds, according to the owners of rearing 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 give the swift water to drink, 4-5 drops per beak (Regardless of feeding the birds with insects, additional 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. The food needs to be 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 or stain the feathers. Take the bird in your left hand, gently open the gap 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 cleaned insect and lay it at the very bottom of the pharynx deep into the oral cavity at the base of the tongue. Remember to wash your hands before feeding. After feeding, try to stroke the throat plumage, this will have a calming effect on the chick and create a trusting relationship between you. Dry insects can be mixed to grind to a homogeneous mass, add a little water for a bunch. Roll up balls the size of a walnut 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 early days, in the absence of insects, you can make a feed mash: mix fat-free scalded non-acidic cottage cheese (0%) with daphnia or gammarus, roll up balls and feed them. Per day - you can give up to 50 of these balls (size with a cherry pit.) Or up to 50 medium crickets.) . As a source of minerals during food preparation, bone meal, one third of a teaspoon per 50 grams of food and 2-4 drops of poly, multivitamins can be added to it. With age, the number of feedings per day decreases, and the amount of food at a time increases. Be sure to control the weight of the bird. Also monitor the droppings, if there are undigested pieces of chitin, wings, and so on in the droppings, then (this is within the normal range, this always happens under natural conditions). 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 20-24 cm.

It is desirable 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 swifts can injure feathers on the bars of the lattice. At the bottom, you can lay an absorbent paper towel, you must make a nest for the bird. It is located in a dark place. The nest should be in the form of a circle with a recess. As a material, foam can be used. 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 heated by placing a 40-60 W table lamp next to it, use an incandescent lamp. It is not recommended to wash the bird, in extreme cases, it is possible with a solution of chamomile and very carefully. Feathers cannot be trimmed, they will not be renewed until the next molt, and some flight feathers do not change for two years. Do not forget a 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. The bird is ready to fly if its weight is 40-45 grams, the plumage has grown and completely freed from the tubes. Flight feathers should reach 15-16 cm and 3-3.5 cm should protrude beyond the tail feathers. To release a swift, you need to choose a large space, a mowed meadow, a field. Hold the bird in an open palm, raising your hand just above your head, you don’t need to throw it up, the bird ready to fly will fly by itself. When you pick up the bird, it will shiver slightly, thus warming up the muscles, preparing itself for flight. As a rule, the bird itself flies away. If the bird, having taken off, flew away a short distance, landed on the ground or on a tree, then the bird is not yet ready. 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 of searching for food, thereby awakening the bird to flight. It is very useful for the flight of a bird if there is a flock of swifts nearby, since the bird, having flown out, immediately tries to find a flock and cling to it.

Take care and love your pets, and they will love you back.

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 the feathers, as well as by a bright light 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 you got a chick, 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 comfortably sit: 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 it is also advisable to first choose white molted worms for feeding. 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 defrosted 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 their beaks for 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 the 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?

In the folded state, 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.