The well-known swallows find a place to live 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. It often happens that the chicks of swallows fall out of the nest. This happens much more often than other birds.
Almost all the time adults spend in flight, getting food for themselves and their offspring. Hunting takes place in the air, small insects are prey. In view of this, adult swallows have strong, well-developed wings. The open mouth targets flies and other insects. When enough of them are collected, the bird returns to the nest and feeds the contents of the beak to its offspring. On average, there are 4 to 6 eggs in a clutch. If all of them survive, and the chicks of the swallows grow up he althy, then we can consider that they are very lucky. 18 days after laying, offspring hatch. If the conditions for life are favorable, food and water are in abundance, then during the summer these birds can nest two or even three times. Swallow chick, photo of whichpresented above, is born blind, with a large yellow mouth, in which it constantly requires a portion of food. Parents diligently look after, struggling to warm and feed stupid kids. During the first week, the female warms the cubs with her warmth, flying out for a short time for food. At this time, the male replaces her.
However, swallow chicks do not always survive. It happens that for some reason the cub is on the ground. In this case, do not pick it up and try to return it to the nest. According to zoologists, swallow chicks that have fallen out of their homes are weak or sick individuals, possibly thrown out by their parents themselves. In doing so, adult birds give the remaining individuals a chance to grow and get stronger. It is difficult to answer the question of how many chicks in a swallow survive to puberty from one clutch.
It is a mistake to think that babies fall out because they cannot fly. For several weeks, the parents live with the grown-up offspring, accompanying them during the flight, and the cubs, even during this period, out of habit, continue to beg for food. However, very soon they adapt to adulthood and begin to stray into new flocks. The length of the grown 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 centenarians, whose age was 16 years old!
The well-being of swallows depends not only on the amount of food, butand from weather conditions. Since these birds also drink on the fly, their mass death occurs in a hot dry summer. The storm is also life threatening. In non-flying weather, birds hide in nests, dooming their chicks 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 unfavorable natural conditions, urbanization, and climatic disasters. In addition, in some countries, such as Italy, hunting for swallows is allowed.
