Bird: True Swifts, Hummingbirds and Swallows

porcupinerex213 (51)in #anima • 7 years ago (edited)

Hello guys, I'm Rex and I'm here to present this post to this community about my fascination with birds.

source: Google

The subject bird is a really broad one, not known by many but diversity plays a big role in the Birdom(short for bird kingdom). Their biology, ecology and anatomy are really interesting just by thinking and imagining it.

But since it will take more than a hundred post to define the beauty and purpose of the bird kingdom, I'll be taking one post at a time to fill your minds about them.

Today, I'll be talking about aerial type of birds which mostly are swifts(apodidae) and hummingbirds(trochilidae). These two bird will be compared to show more about their ecology, behavior and how their infant caring methods differ. These two birds have a lot in common yet a lot in difference. So please, please, get a soda or a bag of lays before proceeding to the next parts of this post and try to enjoy this post that I put a lot time and effort to present to you guys.

Behavior and Locomotion, the Secrets Beneath the Structures.

source:Google
Aerial birds, one of the most distinguishable types among the avens. Good examples of them are mainly the swift and the humming bird that both obtain food with their ability to fly.

But even so, these two birds have similarities, they're diets and ways are far from identical. As for true swifts feed exclusively on flying insects like to their related cousins the swallows.

Compared to humming birds and swallows, swifts have weaker feet in proportion to it's body. To tell you, swifts can't even perch(hold or stand on a thin object) unlike hummingbirds and swallows. When true swifts rests, they usually cling at vertical surfaces except when they're on their nests.

There is a variety of swifts that are so call tree swifts which are specialized versions of true swifts that can perch like the swallow and the hummingbird.

Swifts drink by swooping a gulp from a surface of a body of water. They collect nesting materials by picking up things up in midair like drifting feathers and plant materials. Some tend to snatch things for their nest at full flight like leaves and twigs or even grass stems.

Swift courting are mostly aerial. Copulation even takes place at full flight, speaking about love in heaven.

source:Google
There is another type of swift that are way smaller than the usual or true swifts which we ornithologists(bird specialists) call as swiftlets(collocalia).

The special thing about this swiftlets is their ability to use echolocation. Yes. That is the same echolocation that bats do use to see their surroundings inside the dark caves. In fact, most swiftlets nests inside deep dark caves.

These swiftlets emits a 'click' sound whenever they use their echolocation. These 'click' sounds are audible in the human ears unlike those bats use when they do echolocation.

Not all swiftlets have echolocation, these said non-echolocation species tend to nest in the parts of the caves where light could penetrate inside.

source:Google
On the other hand, here is the hummingbird which if compared to swifts are less aerial in terms of it's habits. Humming birds usually spends most of their times perched on a twig or a wire(if their location is on a city or near a household).

Humming birds have the ability to fly at all directions that they want to, they can even fly backwards like a helicopter!

source:Google
Hummingbird diet mostly consists of flower nectar and the shape of their bill depends on the flower they feed on.

Their long tubular tongues are used to suck dew and rain water when needed. Sometimes they also eat small insects and spiders when they want to.

Even the hummingbird perch most of the time, the hummingbird still lacks the ability of walking and other non-flying locomotives, same as swifts.

Nesting and courtship varies per hummingbird; territoriality is completely absent to some species; other species of humming bird tend to defend their nesting and feeding territory.

Despite it's small size, hummingbirds in general are aggressive and tend to attack larger potential predators such as crows and hawks.

Their Reproduction and Parenting

souce:Google
In nesting, swifts tend to do really small nests that looks like small tea cups, it's actually so small that an egg barely fits in it.

To secure the egg in place, the parents uses it's saliva as a glue that solidifies when dries.

Usually swifts nests at parts of trees where air is more present, we specialists do believe that swifts tend to take the advantage of the swings of the branches for it's eggs positioning and possibly some incubation purposes as well.

Another variety of true swifts, the palm swifts from the old world tropics, also glues their nests underside plam leaves with their nests consisting of feather and plant materials. For such a relatively structural sense, these true swifts shows a surprising variation in their nesting habits.

source:Google
The new world palm swifts(tachornis), like those of the old world, also places their nests underneath palm leaves but in a different manner.

These new world palm swifts tend to burrow holes in the joints and the tree's body or other structure's holes which mostly are positioned diagonally as their nests. Then they make these small sacks of nests in these holes and use feathers and other plant material as their flooring along with the parent's saliva.

In the swiftlet genus collocalta, their nests consists of only the saliva as its only material for their nests.

One species, the white-naped swift of Mexico, builds up no nest at all but lays it's eggs right on difficult corners of deep caves.

The number of swift's egg average varies by species among them, from one to six eggs, with the western genus such as chaetura and auroneutes having a higher average than most.

Young swifts are left unattended for a long period of time since both parents tend to catch insects to feed their infants most of the time.

source:Google
Humming birds are a way different story than swifts when it comes to nesting. Hummingbirds are polygamous(tends to have many wives). The male hummingbird may build nests but does not incubate and hunt for the female and it's juvenile unlike swifts.

The hummingbird nest is more complex than of swifts, it is composed of spider webs, vegetable fibres, fragments of barks and lichens. They are long slender woven baskets of plant fibers that is suspended from a branch with only one part of the nest attached.

The number of egg average for hummingbirds in general is two. Most of the work such as incubation and raising are all left at the female to be done. Talking about a lazy father here.

Their Ecology

source:Google
The distribution of swifts and humming birds depends by the specialized nature of their food. Swifts can be almost found everywhere but are limited to areas with flying insects. Insects of such kinda are presumably more abundant in tropical regions.

source:Google
Hummingbirds are more specialized in their feeding habits cause of the shapes of their bills. Most of the time they feed on flower nectar and because of such restricted diet, the hummingbird's distribution is affected with the flower's season.