Swifts are born to eat and sleep in the air

Date:  March 6, 2019

Source:  Lund University

"They eat and sleep while they are airborne. This is something that researchers have believed since the 1950s, and now we can show that it's true," says Anders Hedenström, professor at the Department of Biology at Lund University.

Three years ago, the same research team at Lund University observed that within the species common swift, (Apus apus) there were individuals that live in the air for up to ten consecutive months without landing -- a world record for being airborne. A different research team has also shown that the alpinep swift could live largely in the air.

In the current study, Anders Hedenström and his colleagues Susanne Åkesson, Gabriel Norevik, Arne Andersson and Johan Bäckman at Lund University, and Giovanni Boano from Italy, studied four individuals of the species pallid swift (Apus pallidus). The results show that the birds are in the air without landing for between two and three and a half months, depending on the individual.

Using micro-data loggers attached to the birds, the researchers measured movement when the wings flap. The loggers record activity every five minutes, and the bird's location once a month. Using this method, the researchers have been able to ascertain that the birds live for months at a time in the air during the winter months, the period of the year they spend in West Africa after the breeding season in Italy.

Continued

Ultra-rare bird spotted over Newfoundland

Bruce Mactavish

Published on July 23, 2016

The anything but common Common Swift spotted over Cape Race

In birding, like in any other sport, they say you have to be good to be lucky but sometimes nothing explains a great event other than pure simple luck.

Due to a compounding series of events Ken Knowles and I were driving through Portugal Cove South on the southern Avalon Peninsula at 1 p.m. on a Tuesday. There is a dead zone for cellphone reception between Renews and Portugal Cove South. The smartphoned chimed as we arrived back into the land of cellphones.

In the time it took to drive from Renews to Portugal Cove South a storm of emails and texts had been flying back and forth between birders in response to a photograph of a bird that Cliff Doran had taken at the Cape Race lighthouse. We checked out the picture on Cliff’s Facebook page.

It was a swift. A somewhat blurry photo with the tail cut off.

Swifts are worldwide group of birds built for flying at breakneck speeds in search of airborne insects. They tend to hunt high above swallows and other fly-catching birds.

There are no swifts native to Newfoundland and Labrador.

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