Anyone who has sailed along the Amur has probably met huge settlements of shore swallows more than once and, without a doubt, admired these cheerful birds. Such colonies are found almost everywhere - on the rivers and lakes of Russia.

They also live along northern rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean. These fast-winged birds tirelessly fly in the air, pleasing the eye with the beauty of their movements. It is impossible to remain indifferent to the charming creatures. How lightly and weightlessly they float in the air!

Like strange butterflies, they circle, illuminated by the rays of the sun, in the blue ether, bathe in it, describing intricate circles and making zigzags... Or they skillfully trim the air near the water itself, where there are usually more small insects. The whole life of a swallow is an aerial poem!

And in the very name of the bird - shore swallow– one can hear the tenderness and sympathy of the people for this sweet creature. Take a look at their settlement - the burrow nests darken one next to the other. But they live here friendly and professionally polite, just like the tutors in Kazan. There are never any scandals or fights.

I wonder what kind of swallow is common in Russia everywhere, from the sultry south to the extreme northern latitudes - of course, the coastal one. They arrive to us later than everyone else, when there are plenty of midges and mosquitoes. They catch insects on the fly and quench their thirst in the same manner. The bird quickly glides along the surface of the water and scoops it up with its wide-open, triangle-shaped beak. Convenient watering hole. She also swims in flight, touching the water with her belly and submerging slightly.

Upon arrival, the shore swallow begins to hatch chicks - four, sometimes five, pale white eggs lie in the depths of each such burrow in the third decade of June. Both parents incubate, but the female spends more time doing this, and the male feeds her. Sometimes he gives her the opportunity to exercise, and the female flies off to catch midges. During this period, they become invisible and rarely appear in public, so many ordinary people begin to worry that the swallows have disappeared.
In flight they are usually silent, but when there is a change in incubation, then, flying up to the mink, the bird emits a barely audible chirp. Each pair has its own identification cry - no other will ever respond to this signal.

Destroying the nest of a swallow, this beautiful and useful bird, used to be considered a great sin. The tradition of not offending them is still alive among the people. Colonies of shore swallows are protected.

At the end of July or at the beginning of August, the chicks already undertake independent excursions over the river. At first they return home for the night, but then they stay away longer and longer and in the fall, gathering in flocks, they fly away. With the first cold snap, at the turn of August and September, the sand martin, sensitive to lower temperatures, heads to warm countries - Southern China, Burma, Vietnam and Indonesia.

There are four species of swallows in the Far East. One of them, the smallest, with a smoky-earthy back and a dark collar on a white neck, is the shore swallow.

Appearance and behavior. The smallest and most inconspicuously colored of our swallows. The tail is short, without braids. The top is brown, the underside is white, with a wide brownish band on the chest. The soft, smooth, but at the same time very maneuverable flight of shorebirds resembles the flight of barn swallows, however, it is inferior to it in swiftness. It usually does not rise high into the air; it flies low above the surface of water or land. On the ground, like other swallows, it moves poorly. Body length 12–14.5 cm, wingspan 26–30 cm, weight 11–18 g.

Description. The upper side of the body is brown or clay-brown; in the upper part of the chest there is a wide transverse band of the same shade. In addition, a small dark tie can be seen in the center of the chest. The throat, belly and undertail are white. The underside of the wing is brown. The legs are almost unfeathered, only on the back side of the tarsus there are a few short feathers collected in a bunch above the hind toe. The beak is blackish-horny in color. Females are indistinguishable from males. Young birds differ from adults by the presence on the upper side of the body of a scaly pattern formed by light, whitish or buffy edges of feathers. Sharply defined edges of the same shade are present on the tips of the tertiary flight and covert feathers of the wing. The throat and chest band have an ocher or yellowish coating. In some individuals, the scaly pattern on the back may persist until the beginning of the summer of next year. It differs from other swallows in the smooth, without a metallic sheen, brown coloration of the upper side of the body, as well as the presence of a dark band on the chest.

Distribution, status. Widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere: the breeding range covers almost all of Europe, the northern part of Asia (south to the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the coast of the Persian Gulf, southern Iran, Pakistan, northern India), as well as most of North America. An isolated portion of its range exists in the Nile Delta. To the north it is distributed further than other species, and in many places reaches the Arctic coast. Winters in Africa, southern Asia and central parts of South America. In European Russia it is not numerous, but in some places it is a common species.

Lifestyle. Arrives at nesting sites in the second half of May. Confined to open landscapes, it usually stays close to water. It nests in colonies in steep river banks, the walls of sand quarries or pits, digging holes in them up to 1.5 m deep. Colonies sometimes consist of many thousands of pairs, and the distance between holes can be only 20 cm. More often it forms colonies of several tens or hundreds nests; rarely lives in separate pairs. The diameter of the entrance to the burrow is approximately 5 cm; at the end of the burrow there is a nesting chamber with a diameter of 10–12 cm, lined with grass and feathers. The clutch contains from 4 to 7, most often 5 pure white eggs. Both parents incubate the clutch and feed the chicks.

Spends a lot of time in the air above or near bodies of water, hunting for flying insects. It often flies just above the surface of the water, almost touching it. It can collect insects from plants and even from the ground, grabbing them in flight or sitting down for a moment on the ground. After the mass flight of chicks, shorebirds gather in huge flocks and stay close to the colony for several days. Autumn migration begins at the end of July and ends in September. They migrate most often in flocks. Single individuals can linger in nesting areas until October.

Shore swallow, or shore swallow ( Riparia riparia)

The shore swallow is a bright representative of the swallow family, the external qualities and some behavioral features of which sharply distinguish the shore swallow from other species of these birds. She has a calm, friendly disposition and a fairly eventful life.

Description of the species

Shore swallows are one of the smallest species of swallows: their body length does not exceed thirteen centimeters, their wingspan barely reaches 28 cm, and the birds weigh about 16 grams. They are gray-brown above, and dirty-white below, with a dark, brown stripe across the chest.

The tail is of medium length, narrow, the beak is short and hard enough for digging underground burrows. Females and males are practically indistinguishable.

These birds settle in small colonies (although there are also lonely pairs) on steep rocks and sandy cliffs, where they build their nests with long tunnels.

An amazing feature of shorebirds is their neatness: on the back of their legs they have feather brushes, with which swallows constantly sweep the floor in the nest and corridor.

Adult shorebirds cannot live in apartments, although chicks can be raised in captivity. They are not afraid or shy away from people; on the contrary, they quickly begin to feel attached to them and do not shy away from big cities. They spend the night near rivers, in reeds or old, unfinished nests in cliffs.

Life along the coastline is quite dangerous - they are hunted by falcons, stoats, foxes, weasels, and badgers. In addition, shorebirds are often subject to epidemics, which out of a thousand individuals in a colony can leave only a few hundred alive.

Its diet consists almost entirely of insects and arachnids. Plant foods are rarely included. It often feeds on the fly, grabbing flying and jumping insects, but there are also cases of ground feeding.

Habitat

Found in Asia, America, Europe, Africa. Since this bird is a migratory bird, its habitat is quite extensive and is divided into seasons: during nesting it flies to northern latitudes, and in winter it leaves this cold area and flies to the southern regions.

During migration, as well as during the breeding season, it stays near the water. The migration period varies depending on the main habitat of the birds: birds arrive in North America earlier than in Northern Asia, and fly south later. Young chicks fly away earlier than their older relatives and make short stops along the way.

Socket device

Nesting time is May or early June. Nesting sites are easily distinguishable - usually it is a wall of sand with a huge number of holes in it, these holes are the home for shore swallows.

The holes are different from an ordinary hollow in a tree: they are long, about two meters, and at the end of this tunnel there is a wider room where the nest, eggs or chicks are located, depending on the time of year.

These birds do not have a very hard beak and claws, so the soil for the house is chosen appropriately so that they can dig a nest without any problems. Typically clayey and podzolic soils are used.

The tunnel is dug by a pair in a very short time in the second half of April. In two days, birds can go a whole meter deep into the plumb line.

The peculiarity of birds is that they are not able to make turns in the tunnel; it is always straight. Sometimes they stop working halfway and start digging another tunnel because there is a stone or tree root in the way, but there are also unknown reasons.

The construction of the nest itself and the soft bedding is again done by the pair together. For this, a plant base of small twigs, a feather and down pillow are used. Despite the fact that the birds appear inseparable during this period, pairs of shorebirds are not very strong.

Sometimes swallows can be in the same pair for several years, but there are also homewreckers, when the male and female change partners after a year or several years.

How a shore swallow cares for its chicks

There are usually up to 8 white eggs in a clutch. The eggs are incubated for no more than two weeks by the male and female alternately. It is important to note that shorebirds have several behavioral features that are not characteristic of other birds:

• At night, parents leave the chicks even when the babies do not yet have their own plumage. They wrap them in feathers and down, and then fly away to a common roost, which can be several kilometers from the nest.
• The second feature applies to chicks: from the first days of life they try to get out of the nest as quickly as possible, crawling along the corridor, not being able to fly, towards the light or their parents. Experiments have shown that a chick raised outside an underground tunnel develops faster than its counterparts. Perhaps this is what explains the reluctance of the chicks to sit in a dark cave.
• When the shorebirds grow feathers and wings (usually about three weeks), they leave their burrows and never return there again. This is their third feature. Most bird species spend at least another week teaching their young to find food or navigate, but shorebirds do not need such care.

After the chicks have left the nest, the same pair in the same tunnel may lay another clutch in one season, time and weather permitting. At the same time, the old nest is thrown away and new feathers and down are brought in.

Epidemics and predators greatly complicate the already hectic life of this bird: eggs can be stolen by weasels, and a large individual can be attacked by a falcon, and yet every year they fly hundreds of kilometers to winter in warm regions and breed in northern latitudes.

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If there are many small round holes in the wall of a rocky canyon or in a river cliff, there is most likely a colony of shore swallows. In the Vitimsky Nature Reserve, their groups are usually small, a dozen or two burrows, but in other places they can form entire “megacities” of tens of thousands of nests. The social nature helps the shorebirds resist predators, which the swallows work together to drive away from their settlements.

There are few birds in our fauna that make nests in burrows and do not occupy other people’s homes, but dig them themselves. Among them are penguin-like puffins with thick beaks, as well as puffins and puffins, which live in large colonies on the coasts of the northern seas. Warmer regions are home to kingfishers and bee-eaters. Shore swallows are the smallest of the feathered mole rats. The weight of these miniature birds does not exceed 16 g, and their body length is 12-13 cm, but their tiny size does not prevent them from coping with difficult work.

UNDER THE PROTECTION OF SHEER WALLS

What are the benefits of sheer walls? First of all, the holes dug in them are not accessible to predators. Another reason is that the sun warms them up well: the birds can take breaks from incubation and fly away to feed. Regardless of the weather and time of day, the temperature inside the burrows of shore swallows is almost constant, its fluctuations do not exceed 5.5 ° C - why not an incubator?

But the biggest problems are landslides, storms and floods, which constantly destroy the homes of the shorebirds. Fortunately, the same reasons also lead to the appearance of new cliffs.

Returning from wintering, birds can never be sure that their home is intact. If nothing happened during the winter, they happily settle in their original place.

HARD BUILDERS

When a place has been found, you can start digging holes. Even if last year’s home is intact, swallows still prefer to build a new one. Young males do most of the work alone, while calling females with loud chirps. If the sympathy is mutual, the birds make synchronized circular flights together, sometimes joined by single individuals. However, they do not pretend to anything more. In married couples that have formed in previous years, both birds are involved in the construction of a new hole.

The swallow makes the first strokes on the still untouched slope of the cliff with its claws, hovering in a trembling flight near the selected area. Then the beak comes into play, and when the bird can climb into the niche, the paws. So, little by little scraping out the hole, the swallows deepen the hole. Soon the excavated soil can no longer crumble down the slope. Then the birds have to transfer it in two stages: first from the depths to the exit, and then away. The movements of the paws are so fast that sand fountains appear outside. The bird carries small pebbles and clay out of the hole in its beak.

During the day, swallows dig 5-20 cm and at the same time throw out about 600 g - 40 times their own weight. Construction takes 6-10 days. If a swallow encounters a large stone, a tree root or someone else's hole on its way, it gives up work. The bird finds another site and begins construction from scratch. While digging, shorebirds diligently guard their burrows. Those who started digging earlier than others occupy the best areas. Less fortunate birds are located nearby, and the last ones are located on the outskirts.

A colony of shore swallows looks like a multi-story building with many windows. The burrows are directed horizontally or with a slight rise. The tunnel, from 20 cm to 1.5 m long, is slightly flattened: its width (6-7 cm) is slightly greater than its height (4-5 cm). At the end of the passage there is a nesting chamber, on the bottom of which dry grass and feathers are loosely scattered.

FOOD IN SCARY

Shorebirds begin laying eggs only when they are convinced that there is enough food. Their main food is insects, mainly associated with water: mosquitoes, mayflies, caddis flies. The mass flight of midges is short-lived, and birds are forced to adapt to this abundant but temporary resource. The weight of one insect is only 1-2 mg. Imagine how many of them you need to catch to feed both yourself and your growing offspring.

What if there is bad weather? For small birds with accelerated energy metabolism and a constant need for food, this is a real disaster: shorebirds suffer greatly from both lack of food and cold. When the temperature reaches 10 °C, swallows can no longer provide themselves with food. The fat reserve of an adult healthy bird is approximately 4 g, which is enough for only two days.

RELUCTANT TO GROW UP

The female lays 4-5 tiny white eggs, from which naked, blind chicks emerge after 2 weeks. Their weight is only 1.5 g. Scientists have found that during the period of feeding the chicks, a pair of shorebirds flies up to the nest up to 200 times a day. At one time, the bird brings about 60 mg of food, which contains approximately 60 insects. That's 12 thousand insects a day!

After three weeks, the time comes for the young to leave their native hole. The chicks have already reached adult size, but do not yet dare to fly. Then the male begins to lure them out. After the first flights, the parents bring the offspring back to the hole.

In mid-July, swallow families leave the colony, and a period of migration begins. Together with adult birds, young birds that have just flown out of the nests also take part in them. Within a radius of several tens of kilometers from their native colony, they fly around the area, looking for new cliffs and remembering places where there are a lot of insects. In the spring, when there is little time for exploration and they need to start nesting as soon as possible, all this knowledge will greatly help them. In August, sand martins fly in flocks of thousands to the south - to India, East Asia, or Africa.

Remember the fairy tale about Thumbelina and the swallow she saved? The basis of the fairy tale plot is realistic. When it gets cold, swallows can actually go into torpor. To get out of it, they urgently need food and warmth.

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF

Order: passerines.
Family: swallowtails.
Genus: shore swallows.
Type: coastline.
Latin name: Riparia ripa.
Size: body length - 12-13 cm, wingspan - 25-28 cm.
Weight: 11-16 g.
Coloration: most of the body is grayish-brown, the chest and throat are white, there is a brown stripe across the chest, the male and female are the same color.
Life expectancy of the coaster: average - 1.6 years, maximum - 8 years.