Well-known swallows find a place for themselveshousing wherever there is food and open space. They inhabit meadows, fields, steppes, river valleys. Often you can see these birds in the city, in close proximity to human habitation. Where these birds settle, it is easy to notice their nests in the form of a bowl. Often it happens that the swallow chicks fall out of the nest. This happens much more often than other birds.
Almost all the time adult individuals spend in flightearning food for themselves and their offspring. Hunting occurs in the air, small insects are prey. In view of this, adult swallows have strong, well-developed wings. An open mouth is aimed at flies and other insects. When there are enough of them, the bird returns to the nest and feeds the contents of the beak to its offspring. On average, in clutch there are from 4 to 6 eggs. If they all survive, and the swallow chicks grow healthy, then we can assume that they are very lucky. 18 days after laying, the offspring hatch. If the conditions for life are favorable, food and water are abundant, then over the summer these birds can nest two or even three times. The swallow chick, the photo of which is presented above, is born blind, with a big yellow mouth, in which it constantly demands to put a portion of food. Parents diligently care, struggling to warm and feed stupid kids. The female during the first week warms the young with its warmth, taking off for a short time for food. At this time, it replaces the male.
However, swallow chicks do not always survive.It happens that for some reason the cub is on the ground. In this case, do not take it in hand and try to return it to the nest. According to zoological experts, the swallow chicks that fell out of their house are weak or sick individuals, possibly thrown out by the parents themselves. By doing so, adult birds give a chance to grow and strengthen the remaining individuals. It is difficult to answer the question of how many chicks in a swallow live to puberty from one clutch.
It is a mistake to think that babies fall out for a reason.that can not fly. For several weeks, parents live with grown offspring, accompanying them during the flight, and even during this period they continue to beg for food out of habit. However, very soon they adapt to adult life and begin to stray into new flocks. The length of the grown-up bird is from 18 to 20 cm, the wingspan is 33 cm, the weight is very tiny - no more than 20 grams. The life of these graceful birds is short - no more than 4 years, but there were long-livers, whose age was 16 years!
The welfare of the swallows depends not only onthe amount of food, but also from the weather. Since these birds also drink on the fly, then in a hot dry summer their mass death occurs. Bad weather is also life threatening. In bad weather, birds hide in nests, condemning their nestlings to starvation. There were cases when people helped the unfortunate and transported swallows to warmer areas. According to biologists, now the number of this species is sharply reduced due to adverse environmental conditions, urbanization, climatic disasters. In addition, in some countries, for example in Italy, the hunt for swallows is allowed.
