Swallows: birds - messengers of spring

Swallows are migratory birds belonging to the order of passerines. They are known to everyone from childhood. Remember the fairy tale "Thumbelina"! The rescued bird helped the heroine of the fairy tale to escape from the mole-groom. Long since this bird in Russia has been treated with care, with love. Even the name of the bird - "swallow" - sounds tenderly, gently. She lives next to a person, trusts his kindness. In spring swallows come from the south, and people know that with their appearance, frosts disappear. Many people's signs are associated with this bird. If it flies low - wait for the rain, because mosquitoes and midges fall closer to the ground. Settled next to the window of the swallow - birds, then good people live here.

Sometimes it is called a human companion. There are more than 120 species of these birds. On the territory of Russia, the most common are three species: killer whale (or village), Daurian swallow and urban. They are more known to man.

The most virtuoso in summer swallow - killer whale. She has a long forked tail, and she settles on the beams under the roof of wooden houses or sheds. Molds the nests in such a way that they resemble bowls. The Daurian swallow has a difference - the back of its red color. Its name has received on life: it settles in the Amur region. He chooses a bigger house in the village, more imposing, because he builds a larger nest than a country swallow. The entrance to it is on the side and looks like a pipe, on a bottle.

Urban swallows are birds that bear the name of "funnels". Their growth is smaller, the abdomen is white, the feet are feathered, and the tail, unlike the killer whale and the Dahurian, is not very well carved. For housing chooses stone houses. Under the cornice or under the peak of the roof, above the balcony, makes a small nest. It is spherical, and the hole-entrance is on the side. This species lives in large cities, they are not afraid of the noise of the metropolis!

Swallows of all kinds build nests with the help of a land moistened with saliva. Their saliva is sticky, the nest holds tight. The swallow is a migratory bird, sometimes its urban variety changes the metropolis and settles on a stony precipice, placing a nest between folds of loose rock. Such places are called nesting. The city swallow is also attracted by sandy cliffs. She uses the abandoned burrows of her sisters-coasters. Surprisingly, the swallows are birds that are not afraid of the noise of cars and nest even in garages! When laying eggs, the male in good weather brings food to his girlfriend, but when the rain manages to grab the midge only for himself. It is interesting to watch from the balcony, as the swallows-parents feed their chicks. "Zheltorotiki" actively squeak, open their mouths wide, and the father or mother delivers to them in their beaks a mosquito, a mosquito. From the window of the city apartments one can observe how they teach the chicks fly. Bird swallow, a photo of which can be found in every biology textbook, differs in flight from other birds. She flies very fast, often turns, turns zigzag.

Interesting is the fact that they never sit on trees. They rest on people's ropes, telegraph wires, Cling claws to the cornices of houses.

Autumn comes, at the end of September these birds fly away. But before departure hundreds of swallows can be seen on telegraph wires. They seem to say goodbye to people. And it becomes somehow sad ...