Swallow and the basic information about swallow

The swallow belongs to the Swallow family, which is one of the familiar birds living close to humans, originating from Africa, adaptable to the life of hunting in the air, flying fast and is a nice symbol that signals spring comes.

• Common name : swallow
• English name : martin
• Scientific name : Hirundinidae
• Origin : Africa
• Characteristics : Nesting in a cave
• Industry: Live wire animals
• Class : Birds
• Department : Sharing
• Last name : Swallow
• Weight : 40 - 184 g
• Size : 10 - 24 cm

Swallow habitat

The swallow lives mainly in caves, in the mountains or in the dry regions; they soon adapted to aerial hunting in sparsely populated rural areas, less populated areas or near water bodies.

Swallow shape characteristics

Swift swallows well, skillful gliding.

• The swallow has a small body, short, but muscular body with short, soft beak; strong jaw, wide mouth
• The wings are long, narrow and pointed with 9 major flight feathers. The tail is long, deeply forked, slightly concave, or slightly square with 12 major hairs. The female has a longer tail than the male
• Short legs, used to park on branches or wires, rarely used to walk
• The coat is dark blue or shiny green on the upper part, simple or striped on the lower part, usually white or hung. Long tail hair, the length of outer coat is longer.
• An adult swallow has a body length of about 10 - 24 cm and weighs about 40 - 184 g

Characteristics and behavior of a swallow

• Swallow is good at flight, skillful in flying; they spend most of their lives flying in the sky in solitary or solitary living conditions; the rest of the swift will land only when it is time to give birth.
• In the cold season, the swallows will quietly leave their homes to avoid the cold, and will invite each other to return to the same place in the spring; however, they rarely fly in groups.
• The faithful swallow, they choose a monogamy 'mate, often live next to the breeding grounds when they are not moving, and return to the same place later to make new nests and breed.

Reproduction characteristics of a swallow

• Swallow often nest in caves, old buildings, towers or man-made structures. Their nests are usually made of mud, mud, clay or plants. In the breeding season, the males will choose their nesting place and use their song and special flying style to attract mates.
• Female birds lay eggs and only lay about 1 to 6 eggs at a time. The swallow eggs are white and will hatch after 19 - 23 days of incubation. Young hatchlings will be hairless and their eyes will always be closed
• At this time, both the father and the mother swallows together to take care of the young; they will release food balls of 300 - 1,000 insects and feed them. Young birds will be fully feathered and leave the nest after 6 - 10 weeks of age; When they fly away, they will never return.

Distinguish swallow from bird nest

The swallow has split tail feathers and legs perched on branches or wires.

Swallow and bird nest have many very similar features in appearance. However, there are still some distinctive identities to distinguish these two distinct birds. Specifically:

• Swallow: Split tail, legs perched on branches or wires; The coat is black or dark green, the bill is larger than the nest; fly at low altitude with long, pointed, short, broad wings
• Bird nest: Do not split the tail and never park because of weak legs; black fur, bill smaller than swallow; fly at high altitude.

Some other interesting information

• Swallow in particular and the swallow in general have a habit of choosing mates through the length of the tail. They can eat, drink, sleep, even mate in the air
• Swallow is known as the fastest flying bird in the world with the maximum flight speed (when not carrying prey) reaching about 113 - 185 km / h. In particular, this bird often flies faster in the spring by 2 to 6 times than in the fall.
• On average in life, an adult swallow flies a total of about 4.5 million km, equivalent to 6 trips to the Moon or 100 around the Earth and then back.

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