In fact, they are not adapted to being on the ground at all and when one does land it is purely by accident and they usually need help.īreeding birds will sleep in the nest, and what a relief that must be.
They have long wings and slender bodies and are not encumbered by long legs or tail. It seems exhausting to us, who are mainly rooted to the ground, but swifts have the perfect shape for this existence.
Now this bird almost never lands and young swifts, which will not breed until their second year, probably never touch down between flying from the nest and returning to breed. The subject of these two questions really ought to be that other summer visitor from Africa: the swift. The masters of the skies then, or are they? They do land though, but not often, and one of their favourite perching spots is telegraph wires where you will recognise them from their dangling tail streamers. They feed on flying insects and can be seen swooping over farmland or water where these are plentiful. They have been recorded flying at up to 35mph and their superb navigation skills mean that they return to their same nests each year. Swallows fly here each spring from Africa, an epic journey for such small creatures, and they often cover 200 miles a day. Our second question came from Tricia Napoli-Mole from Coventry who asked “My husband swears swallows never land. We’ve had two very similar questions sent in to us this week about swallows - those fantastic birds which typify our summers, and are certainly in evidence at the moment.
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