Dear friends! The season for young swifts to leave the nest has now begun. Sometimes people bring them home with good intentions - to feed them and keep them as a pet. But not everyone knows that this is a very difficult matter. We bring to your attention advice from specialists at the Zoovet center on keeping swifts at home.
Help the swifts.
You have found a swift and you need to determine whether it is a chick or an adult bird. The chick can be identified by the white edging on the large flight feathers, the presence of tubes from which the feathers open, and white specks on the head. Next, we inspect the bird. We are looking for external violations and deviations from the norm. We look at the presence and integrity of the plumage. We examine the wings and legs for grass, bruises and fractures. If the wing is damaged, it will be visible externally, the diseased wing will be located lower, it will be below shoulder level. When examining, always compare paired body parts. Spread the feathers on the wings and inspect for bruises, wounds and thickenings that may indicate a violation of the integrity of the tissue. The same inspection should be carried out on the paws. Carefully examine the breast bone, especially the keel and the presence of muscles on the breast bone. If the keel protrudes strongly and the muscle frame at the edges is smoothed out, this may indicate possible exhaustion of the bird. Here the bird will need to be fed. If a wing or leg dangles, this may indicate a possible fracture. In this case, you urgently need to see a specialist. Its effectiveness depends on timely assistance.
If there are no external injuries, but the bird is lethargic and weakened, then infectious diseases must be ruled out. Here you need to take tests for bird flu, psittacosis, salmonellosis, protozoa, helminths, bacteriological culture and fungi. During the examination, observe personal hygiene measures. Before and after communication, wash your hands and remove droppings every day.
If the bird is sedentary and has no appetite, then it must be warmed. For this purpose, you can use incandescent lamps with a power of 40-60 W, at a distance of 50 cm from the bottom. You can use heating pads and bottles filled with hot water. And don’t forget about feeding the bird, since it feeds in flight, it actually cannot get food on the ground. First of all, you need to check for the presence of a swallowing reflex. Take an insulin syringe with a removable head, fill it with 0.2-0.3 ml of warm boiled water and drop it into the beak, drop by drop onto the tongue. The bird must swallow, it will be noticeable when it swallows. This is important for beak feeding.
When feeding, it is important to remember that swifts are insectivorous birds and the basis of their diet should be insects. Most often, chicks are picked up on the street. Under natural conditions, adult birds feed their chicks (about 50-70 times a day) with compressed lumps of food consisting of various types of insects, which they catch on the fly.
If you do not immediately have the opportunity to purchase insects, then for the first two days you can use baby lean meat puree, turkey and beef. It can be given to the bird through an insulin syringe. If the chick is small, then it needs to be fed every hour, about 0.3-0.5 ml of puree at a time. But you still can’t do without insects, otherwise the feather will become fragile and brittle. And so the following insects can be used to feed swifts: crickets, drones, wax moths, fly larvae and ant eggs. Mealworms should not be given, as there is a risk of contracting a helminthic infestation. Bread and grains should not be given. (It is not recommended to use ready-made food for insectivorous birds; according to owners of nursing birds, there are cases of poisoning.) And do not forget to feed with live insects, this is important for swifts. After each feeding, do not forget to give the swift water, 4-5 drops in its beak (Regardless of feeding birds with insects, additional vitamins and minerals must be added to the diet). Before feeding, free the insects from foreign objects and remove protruding parts of the body. It is advisable to soak dry insects in warm water before eating; this can be done together with frozen insects. The food needs to be at room temperature.
Before feeding, take the chick and wrap it in a handkerchief or napkin so that there is only one head outside. This is necessary so as not to injure or stain the feathers. Take the bird in your left hand, gently open the gap in the beak with your right hand, and use the index finger of your left hand to fix the open beak. With your right hand, using tweezers, take the cleaned insect and place it at the very bottom of the pharynx, deep into the oral cavity, behind the base of the tongue. Don't forget to wash your hands before feeding. After feeding, try to stroke the throat feathers, this will have a calming effect on the chick and create a trusting relationship between you. Dry insects can be mixed, ground until smooth, add a little water for binding. Roll walnut-sized balls from this homogeneous mass and wrap each nut in foil and freeze in the refrigerator. This “nut” is enough for a day of feeding. You can also freeze whole insects (In the first days, in the absence of insects, you can make a mash feed: low-fat scalded non-acidic cottage cheese (0%) mixed with daphnia or gammarus, roll into balls and feed them. Per day, you can give up to 50 such balls (the size with a cherry pit). Or up to 50 medium crickets.) . As a source of minerals during the preparation of food, you can add bone meal, one third of a teaspoon per 50 grams of food and 2-4 drops of poly, multivitamins. With age, the number of feedings per day decreases, and the amount of food at a time increases. It is imperative to control the weight of the bird. Also, monitor the droppings; if there are undigested pieces of chitin, wings, and so on in the droppings, then (this is within normal limits, in natural conditions this always happens). An adult bird ready to fly should have a body weight of 40-44 grams. The body length of a bird ready for independent life reaches 20-24 cm.
It is advisable to keep the bird in a half-open plastic box, 40 cm long, 30 cm wide and 15-20 cm high. Bird cages are not recommended, as the swift can injure its feathers on the bars of the cage. You can lay an absorbent paper towel on the bottom; you must make a nest for the bird. It is placed in a dark place. The nest should be in the form of a circle with a recess. Foam can be used as a material. The top of the box can be covered with gauze. The temperature in the box should be between 23-27 *C. The box can be warmed up by placing a 40-60 W table lamp next to it, use an incandescent lamp. It is not recommended to wash the bird; in extreme cases, you can use a chamomile solution and be very careful. Feathers cannot be trimmed; they will not be renewed until the next molt, and some flight feathers do not change for two years. Don't forget good, healthy plumage will enable your pet to survive in the wild.
Their parents do not teach swift chicks to fly; they have the ability to fly at the genetic level. The bird is ready to fly if its mass is 40-45 grams, the plumage has grown and is completely free of tubes. The flight feathers should reach 15-16 cm and protrude 3-3.5 cm beyond the tail feathers. To release a swift, you need to choose a large space, a mown meadow, or a field. Hold the bird in your open palm, raising your hand slightly above your head, there is no need to throw it up, the bird is ready to fly and will fly on its own. When you pick up a bird, it begins to tremble slightly, thus warming up its muscles, preparing itself for flight. As a rule, the bird flies away on its own. If the bird, having taken off, flew away for a short distance and landed on the ground or on a tree, then the bird is not ready yet. You need to wait 2-3 days, wait for good weather and try again. Try not to feed the bird before flying; hunger activates the instincts to search for food, thereby awakening the bird to fly. It is very useful for the flight of a bird if there is a flock of swifts nearby, since the bird, having flown out, immediately tries to find the flock and attach itself to it.
Hilde Matthes volunteered at the Black Swift Rescue Center in Frankfurt am Main with the support of the German Black Swift Society, where she raised hundreds of swift chicks over the course of several years. Today she works as a private individual and every year, in July-August, she helps raise about 35 chicks, helping them get stronger and fly away.
Feeding black swift chicks ( Apus apus)
The black swift is one of the most difficult species to successfully nurse. This is not an easy task for beginner amateurs, so it will be best for the swift if you find an expert who can handle this task. If this is not possible, then below are detailed explanations of what needs to be done to safely raise the bird.
Where to keep a swift chick?
Swifts should never be kept in bird cages because they will panic, fight and damage their feathers. If the long flight feathers are damaged, swifts are unable to fly. It is best to keep the chick in a semi-open plastic box measuring at least 30 cm long, 20 cm wide and 15 cm high. It is very important to maintain cleanliness so that the shears can exercise their wings; It is necessary to avoid contamination of feathers with droppings at all costs. Therefore, the bottom of the box should be lined with absorbent paper towels. The droppings can be covered with pieces of toilet paper, but the box must be cleaned daily. I place a “nest” made of wood or cork in a corner of the box protected from light. If this is not possible, a glass vase will do, but it should be wrapped in cloth to prevent the chicks from losing heat.
If the chick is alone, it will simply sit quietly in the nest. But if there are two or more chicks in the nest, they clean each other’s feathers, and they can be heard making quiet “purring” calling sounds. After feeding, these sounds sometimes subside for a while, but when hungry, the chicks begin to make them again, first quietly, and then with increasing force. When it is time for the chicks to fly, they stop making typical nesting sounds.
Black swifts often play with each other's feathers in the nest, especially on the head and throat, which leads to a calming state. When feeding the chicks, I try to imitate this behavior. A gentle stroking of the throat can calm an agitated swift and establish trust between the bird and its caregiver.
A gentle stroking of the throat calms the swift. Photo: G. Kaiser
Feeding
Black swifts are exclusively insectivorous birds. Adult birds feed the chicks several times a day with compressed lumps of food consisting of various types of insects caught on the fly. I try to keep things as natural as possible and feed the chicks seven times a day with suitable ingredients from several types of insects.
I make the following mixture (these amounts are for chicks aged 3 to 6 weeks):
2 or 3 house crickets (1-2 cm long)
3 or 4 drones
- ½ wax moth larvae
Several fly larvae (fishing bait)
flies
1/8 teaspoon dried insects (not treated with vegetable oil)
1 vitamin capsule “Beo-pearl” (Brand-name of the German company “Vitakraft”).
This product is sold in the United Kingdom under the name "Beo Special". It can also be purchased in other European countries. If it is not available to you, you just need to exclude it from the formula for feeding.
Once a day: vitamins and calcium supplements.
You should not feed swifts bread, grains, mealworms or earthworms. These products are completely unsuitable and can cause death or malformation of feathers, rendering the bird unable to fly normally.
Crickets and wax moth larvae can be purchased from specialist pet stores or by ordering delivery from online retailers such as Livefoods Direct Co.Uk. Drones can be purchased from beekeepers (try through your local beekeepers association). Fly larvae are sold in specialized stores selling fishing supplies. The larvae can be placed in a warm place to hatch flies, which can be frozen if necessary. Always keep enough food in stock.
Cooking
First, wash your hands thoroughly with a disinfectant cleanser.
Food for each feeding should be freshly prepared. Beo-Pearl capsules need to be soaked in water for 30-60 minutes.
Dried insects need to be thoroughly cleaned: select and remove any dangerous foreign particles, such as broken stones or twigs. Place the dried and cleaned insects along with the frozen insects and warm water, and when the feeding ingredients reach room temperature, drain them in a sieve. Then place the ingredients on a plate. Food should have a good smell. If, for example, a cricket smells bad, it means it is rotten and needs to be thrown away. Remove any tough limbs from crickets before feeding. Grind up the fly larvae and use them as a binder for dried insects.
It doesn't matter if one or two ingredients are missing. Only crickets, flies and dried insects plus vitamin and calcium supplements will guarantee success. If the dried insects have been soaked sufficiently, there is no need to add water.
To feed your swift, carefully wrap it in a napkin to prevent its plumage from getting greasy.
Feeding technique
Before feeding, I loosely wrap the chick in a paper napkin and carefully hold the bird in my left hand. Precautions must be taken to avoid feather contamination from feed. I then very carefully open the beak with my right fingernail and carefully insert my left index finger into the side of the beak to hold it open. (See two photos below). All this must be done very carefully and carefully so as not to break or bend the fragile tissues of the beak. The beak of swifts is surprisingly fragile.
Carefully open the soft beak with the tip of your nail. Photo: Meierjürgen
Then, still carefully, I place a piece of food deep into the throat using tweezers with blunt rounded ends (you can buy them at the pharmacy or ask your veterinarian). If food is placed shallowly, the chick may push it out or throw it out, shaking its head.
Carefully hold the beak open with your finger. Then, using medical tweezers with rounded tips, we very carefully place the food deep into the throat. Photo: Meierjürgen
If the chick is very hungry, I give him extra food.
If the chick is helpless and exhausted, you need to start feeding very slowly. Start with one or two food components (such as flies or drones) and repeat the process after an hour. If necessary, continue feeding this way at night.
Then, very gradually, increase the swiftlet's diet until he begins to eat the normal food described above. In such difficult situations, I add a drop of liquid (1/2 Amynin + ½ water) to each serving of food using a medical syringe without a needle. (Note: Amynin is a nutritional protein solution).
If the chick is sucking your finger, don't stop it, as this actually helps with feeding. This makes it much easier to give food that is readily swallowed.
Unless absolutely necessary, I do not deworm chicks, trying to keep them in conditions as close to natural as possible.
Chick weight control
I record the weight of each chick daily. This provides me with the data I need to determine readiness to fly, as well as information about the overall health of the bird.
The chick is developing well and is almost ready to fly if its weight is 50 g or even more within a few days. In the days leading up to flight, the chick will refuse to eat and lose weight until it reaches 40-45g, meaning the chick is ready to fly.
Daily weighing is necessary to monitor the chick's growth. Photo: Meierjürgen
Take flight
Birds are ready to fly when their long wing feathers are completely clear of light protective tubes. The flight feathers should be approximately 16 cm long and extend at least 3.5 cm beyond the tail feathers. Swifts have no pre-flight practice. After leaving the nest, they simply fly and remain in the air for two years until they begin nesting. However, chicks strengthen their flight muscles by performing “push-ups,” pressing their wings to the floor and lifting themselves high above the surface.
I choose a good sized lawn or a freshly mown meadow to release my swifts. Then, if something goes wrong, the bird can be easily located. To “launch”, swifts need space and some elevation above the ground. A small stepladder provides sufficient height. I always remember to check for falcons or other birds of prey nearby. If birds of prey are flying nearby, I wait until they leave the “launch” site.
I stand on the stepladder, holding the swift in my open palm. It will take him some time to get his bearings. In most cases, the birds will first relieve their bowels and then, after a couple of minutes, fly away freely and confidently. What a great satisfaction it is to be able to see with your own eyes or through binoculars how it soars into the sky! But if the bird falls to your palm or backs away, it means it’s too early to release it. Take her back home and try to release her in a few days. Never throw a bird into the air!
This young swift is ready to fly. The feathers have fully grown because... completely cleared of protective tubes. Photo: Meierjürgen
On the day of release the weather should be clear and, if possible, no precipitation for the next 2-3 days in a southerly direction, as the birds will head straight to Africa.
Fledglings of black swifts do not receive any help from their parents. From the very beginning they are able to fly perfectly and achieve everything on their own.
Successful return
As a rule, nothing is subsequently known about the flown chicks of swifts, so small is the number of recorded returns of ringed birds. Therefore, I was very happy when one of “my” swifts, raised in 2004, was registered in 2005 in Kronberg. All human-raised swifts wear a numbered ring, and this bird was noted by ornithologists while searching for a nesting site. The ring number confirmed that it was one of “my” chicks.
The fully fledged fledgling looked around, took its bearings, then spread its wings and flew away.
This happy return indicates that the feeding technique and diet were completely successful. This is important because, as mentioned above, feeding and caring for black swifts is very difficult. Their feathers easily become deformed or even fall out if their nutrition is inadequate in any way. The return of this bird confirms that the recommended food mixture is correct and can be used with confidence.
Translation: Elena Minkova
Here's how to feed an adult swift; you can see how the swift resists, trying to retract its head.
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=02js4857WH8
This clip shows a "light" chick. But many chicks behave like adults, i.e. are reluctant to take food, so they must be fed using gentle feeding techniques.
If you try to feed a swift yourself, you will probably find that it is much more difficult than the video shows! Be patient, calm and always very careful. Handling your bird forcefully will not make it cooperate better with you and may even cause severe injury to it. In such cases, it is best for you and the bird to give in and hand it over to someone experienced in feeding and handling, without causing the bird unnecessary suffering from inappropriate food, a broken beak, or damaged feathers.
Addendum to Gillian Westray
Further information
Black swifts They are not like other birds, although they are confused with swallows. Swifts are our fastest birds (they can reach speeds of up to 120-180 km/h). Unlike swallows, they cannot sit on wires, sing and flutter low above the ground.
Swifts always fly high and fast, with a ringing sound of “Vzziii-zziii!” They nest no lower than the second floor. Swallow chicks have yellow mouths, while swift chicks have dark mouths.
Tame songbirds You can’t release them into the wild - they’ll die, but swifts can and should be. Their parents do not teach them to hunt or fly. They themselves immediately begin to catch flies, and together with other swifts, around August 7th, they fly away to Africa.
Anyone who feeds this strange “mixture” of an owlet, a kitten and a fighter will forever lose part of his soul - it will fly into the sky along with the bird.
I haven’t kept birds for a long time, since even a claw growing into my finger causes me neurosis, let alone more serious problems. And now I had no intention of feeding anyone. But this chick was clearly waiting for me.
And the story began like this...
The haircut is 15 days old! This is how I saw him for the first time.
I've been friends with the little crow for three months now Carlos– as soon as I enter the stadium, he flies up to me for meat.
He used to hang out in the sandbox under the children’s feet, but now he’s afraid of everyone except me. His crow parents look after him, they are used to me, but they don’t come close to me, like a chick.
Little video of Carlusha -
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I gave the crow a treat, and the Cat and I were about to leave, when suddenly women from a neighboring house came up to us - they said that a chick had fallen out of the roof and asked to look at it.
I hoped that this was the fledgling of a tit or blackbird - I would put it on a tree, where the parents would feed it, and leave.
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But it turned out haircut- trembling, screaming, with a bald neck and dull eyes.
A whole council gathered around. People thought that the parents would grab the chick with their paws and carry it to the nest, like the fairy-tale roc birds.
They also thought that if they touched him, he would smell like a person, and his parents would not accept him.
This widespread myth collapses when ornithologists ring chicks right in the nest, but the parents do not react to this - their sense of smell is so-so. But you can’t hang around the nest all the time, because... this attracts predators and they kill the chicks.
Even before squeezing the chicks, you need to wash your hands, because... There may be an infection on our hands that is dangerous for birds.
They tried to feed the chick near the house with bread. Fortunately, it’s unfortunate - bread is poison for him.
Nobody wanted to treat the little haircut every 2 hours with crickets. Cursing, I carried him home.
My family was not at all happy about the new troubles, besides, everyone was afraid that in the morning we would see a corpse in the box - after all, the chick collapsed right on the concrete. Only nephew Sashka jumped with delight - this is a whole adventure - raising a chick.
Marshmallow he angrily turned away and went into another room - he doesn’t like birds, hamsters and other little things that distract attention from his royal person.
Even in his youth he was not a hunter, but he is now 16 years old and his main motto: don’t bother a pensioner!
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I took a shoebox, put a cloth in it and planted the chick. She gave him water with glucose from a pipette to relieve stress and start digestion, and began to prepare food for him.
Some veterinarians advise feeding the shears meat, egg and cottage cheese, but the practice of swift rescuers (there are swift rescue centers in Europe, and we have many enthusiasts) has shown that a week after departure, such young birds almost always lose their flight feathers. They cannot fly and die.
The man does not see this - after all, the bird is already free - and thinks that he has done a good deed. Sometimes, even before departure, it is clear from such chicks that they are not in order - the feathers are tousled, unkempt, some of the flight feathers (in the wings) are missing or they are too short.
And the man rejoices and talks about the bird that flew away right and left.
However, as one acquaintance said, without human intervention it would immediately be a guaranteed corpse, but the bird still lived, saw the sky, and the person gained new experience.
But where can I get insect clippers this very minute so that he doesn’t die of hunger? Nowhere. So on the first evening I had to feed him meat and cottage cheese (an egg is considered even more harmful than these ingredients). I grated the beef on a fine grater and scalded it with boiling water. Cottage cheese (0% fat) was kept in boiling water for 2 minutes.
I stuffed balls of this mixture into his mouth, forcibly opening his beak with my long nail.
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The night passed anxiously - the chick squealed incessantly under my ear. I'm an Owl, so I set my alarm for early in the morning so I don't miss my first feeding. At night the chick rests for 6-8 hours, and during the day it needs to be fed food every 2 hours.
The next day the little haircut himself began to open his mouth and grab food from your finger. At the same time, he tried to swallow my finger or at least suck it like a pacifier, which was funny. Swifts have beaks that are not like those of predators, so they cannot eat us.
Now it was clear that the little haircut was not going to die!
But leave it on 5 o'clock, I was afraid to go to Moscow for crickets (I live in the Moscow region, near a forest). I had to commit a crime - go catch fillies and skates.
People usually don't want to feed insects to birds because they are squeamish (although frozen crickets look and taste a little different from shrimp).
I have another problem - I adore insects and consider their lives as valuable as the lives of other animals.
Having stepped on the throat of my love for insects, I decided to catch the most common species - zelenchukov and skates. They jump in abundance in the grass.
" " on Yandex.Photos
This photo is from my LiveJournal.
“Gypsy grasshopper – Chrysochraon dispar (Acrididae, Gomphocerinae), male and female. Suborder short-whiskered, family. locusts, filly subfamily / on a photo bag » on Yandex.Photos
While catching the poor fellows, I experienced great ethical torment.
And so the days dragged on - early in the morning I jumped up at the alarm clock and, like a zombie, went to feed the little haircut. Then she went to bed again, then got up, fed again, worked, and went to catch skates. I canceled all meetings, worked from home, and responded to any proposal: “I can’t, I need to feed the swift!”
I transplanted the shorthaired one into a large box, covering it with soft cloth so that it would not damage the feathers. At night I put the box outside the door, into the corridor, but I heard the endless squealing of the chick from there too.
I couldn’t catch more than 40 skates in an evening, but I need 70 a day. I had to add a mixture of meat and cottage cheese to the insects. On the fifth day this led to bad consequences.
I was tired of grating the meat on a dull grater, and decided to cut several micro-pieces 1 mm thick with a knife at night. Many did this - and nothing.
But it didn't do my chick any good. In the morning he was silent, lethargic, and did not want to eat. I got so worried that I got sick myself and started taking pills.
The whole day my mother and I forcibly opened the bird’s mouth, poured water into it and pushed in one of the skates. Then they closed the chick’s beak and held it until it swallowed the insect.
By ten o'clock in the evening he came to his senses and again began to open his mouth and grab food!
I was happy and gave him the name Stitch, in honor of the large-mouthed and unpredictable alien from the wonderful cartoon “ Lilo and Stitch".
Soon I was able to order and pick up 1,500 crickets from Zooservice. Crickets are supplied to the regions by prior order from the Zoo Fund.
Banana cricket and the house cricket is the best food for the swift. I had to catch the insects from a large box, put them in small plastic containers and put them in the freezer.
Before each feeding I sniffed a cricket– a good cricket is whitish underneath and smells almost nothing, a bad one is dark and smells like rotten meat.
Each cricket must be cleaned of its legs (they are spiny), wings, elytra, cerci, and antennae. In one feeding Stitch ate 8-13 bellies of crickets soaked in warm water.
I consoled myself with the fact that these crickets are already suicide bombers - they are raised to feed lizards. Actually, thanks to the popularity of lizards as pets, mass production of crickets and their supply to the regions appeared. Thanks to the lizards and their owners.
Now I didn’t have to worry about food, but for variety and as a mild vitamin supplement, sometimes I caught nettle moths.
“Large nettle moth – Pleuroptya ruralis, moth family – Crambidae on marigolds (tagetes)” on Yandex.Photos
In July, the mass flight of these butterflies begins. They fly out of the nettles in crowds and immediately sit upside down under the leaves.
Butterflies, forgive me, I’m still ashamed, because I’ve never tormented you before, and now I’ve decided to sacrifice the swift.
Particularly desperate people, who were unable to buy crickets, remove flies from maggots and organize large catches of butterflies - they fly into the spotlight at night.
By the way, there are people who save 10 swifts or more per season. They take them to work in a carrier and feed them there.
I'm stitching for 21 days!
Water did not always fall from the pipette into the beak - sometimes onto the head.
The main thing is not to stain the chick’s plumage. For a bird that spends its entire life in the air, where it eats, drinks and even mates, dirt on its plumage is like death. If Stitch got his tail dirty with droppings, I immediately wiped it with a cotton swab dipped in water.
But this was rare, because... I constantly changed paper towels he has it in the box.
We're 24 days old!
Very quickly the bald chick turned into such a fluffy one with a meaningful look.
Swifts have amazing hearing. Even in a dream, the chick chirps, but as soon as you pass by on tiptoe, without creaking the floorboards, he begins to scream loudly, loudly, like a victim: “Come on, eat!”
28 days- Stitch began to crawl out of the box. He clung to the walls not only with sharp claws, but also with his wings, like hands.
Now I had to cover it not with gauze, but with a heavy cloth - I didn’t want it to hang around the apartment, risking its life. For a while he was held back by the slippery strips of tape at the top of the box, but he grew stronger day by day and soon nothing could keep him in place.
Each swift has its own character. Stitch turned out to be very violent and hyperactive.
Where did that bald pterodactyl with a dull look go? The eagle is who is now in front of us!
Stitch chirped all day long above my ear. I soon learned to guess what he was doing without looking into the box - just by listening to the sounds.
For example, when he stretched, first stretching out one wing, then the other, he said: “Squeak!”
As he grew older, he made chick sounds less and less, and became increasingly quiet or clicked like a bat.
One day a friend came to see us, she saw a haircut, but didn’t realize What is he saying:
What do you feed him?
Crickets!
So are these crickets cricketing? And at first I didn’t understand what it was.
The crickets are in the freezer, but our chick is cricketing!
30 days– the wings are getting longer every day!
35 days.
Haircut child and beloved foster mother.
36 days.
Haircuts like to sort out the “feathers” of plush toys and pillows.
At first it was hot in the apartment - plus 27, so he didn’t need heating, but when it got colder, I started turning on the heater.
39 days- I’ll sing for you!
Swifts have a huge mouth. They can also turn their necks like owls.
When Stitch saw a midge on the ceiling, he began to follow it, turning his head.
39 days.
Sashka and Stitch.
Two weeks before departure, Stitch began to riot - a pre-flight teenage riot!
He constantly tried to get out of the box, screamed, and did push-ups on his wings, like a man in his arms.
When he was 39 days old, he suddenly planned from the sofa to the floor like an airplane. I was scared. The box now had to be covered with a foam lid and pressed down with a book.
Swifts fly out at 42-45 days, when the wings become 3.5 cm longer than the tail, and all the tubes that covered the growing feathers disappear under the wings and tail.
The chick, locked in a box, was raging so much that I was afraid - what if he broke his feathers? But the box is soft, lined with thick fabric...
The furious chick calmed down when I stroked his throat or head. I looked at him and thought, how will he be there, high in the sky? Without a warm box, favorite toys, delicious crickets, round-the-clock care...
Swifts were flying over our house, and I was scared to imagine that mine would fly just as high.
At first, the bottom of the box is constantly strewn with tubes, but then there are fewer and fewer of them.
41 days.
This is how Stitch did push-ups on the wings. After working out, he rested - sat on his favorite teddy bear or at my side.
I made a short video on Stitch exercise theme –
Usually loud and chattering, he trained silently. But as soon as I brought the crickets, he started voicing.
41 days.
Time to take a nap.
44 days – last photo before departure.
It was almost impossible to photograph Stitch - he didn’t want to pose or sit on my lap. As soon as I opened the lid and tried to give the baby cricket, Stitch would spit it out, turn away, open his wings and run across the sofa like an airplane on the runway!
He could fly up to the ceiling even from the floor, which is rare for young swifts (adults are quite capable of taking off from the ground, although they are not adapted to this). Stitch showed in every possible way that he was strong and agile and ready to fly.
As it should be, 3 days before departure he lost his appetite - in the morning he ate 6 crickets, and during the day - only 2 crickets every 4 hours. Stitch dropped his weight from 50 grams to 45 in order to easily soar into the sky.
I always locked it in a box, because flying around the room is dangerous - you can damage the flight feathers, and then - goodbye Africa. New feathers will grow only by next season, and keeping a bird in an apartment until May is not much fun.
Here I must say that I was very worried about the first week of improper feeding - although in the first days of feeding a composition of 50 percent insects and 50 percent meat + cottage cheese is allowed, this is of little benefit. But you can’t starve either.
Seeing one morning tiny feather from the back, which flew to the floor, I was already chilled - I immediately imagined how the flight feathers would fall off by the evening. But no, that was the only mini feather we lost!
At 44 days Stitch was ready to fly, but the sky was overcast every day! You can only release the haircut in sunny weather, otherwise all your efforts will be in vain.
And here he is 45 days. July 30th. Exactly a month has passed. I constantly look out the window, and, lo and behold, thanks to the swift Gods, at 17.00 the sun appeared, the temperature warmed up to plus 24!
With trembling hands I take out the chick and stroke its neck goodbye - he, as always, rolls his eyes with pleasure. As soon as I remove my finger, its wings begin to vibrate and warm up.
I put him in a soft large carrying bag, and together with his mother and Sasha we go to the stadium. I climb up to the highest podium—about two meters. I stretch out my hand with a swift, trying to take a goodbye photo, but I don’t have time - he shoots up sharply, like a rocket!
A minute - and he is already under the clouds! We follow him in circles. Soon he sees other swifts near the house where he fell out of the nest. Stitch flies there and they disappear above the house, very, very high.
People with bottles of beer look at us in surprise - they don’t understand why we are wandering around the field and pointing our fingers at the sky?
We are all experiencing a huge emotional shock - we want to fly after Stitch and see how he is doing - has he caught flies, has he made friends with his brothers?
We hide our tears of joy and sadness, but our trembling voices give everyone away.
Already on August 7-8, swifts will fly to Africa. Have a nice journey, our baby, we will be waiting for you in a year!
Now I can’t calmly listen to the screams of swifts. And this is forever.
Forum "Planet of Swifts"- come in, chat, people here will understand you and help you.
Swifts fly from Africa to UK in 5 days! Aren't they fantastic birds?!
We will tell you what to feed the swift in this article. If you find a sick bird on the street, you should immediately contact a veterinarian. He will also tell you the diet. If the selected individual is healthy, you have a “homeless” chick in your hands - the menu for feeding is given below. But remember that these birds are capricious: care will require patience and time. They are demanding when it comes to food, do not tolerate restrictions in their freedom, and do not tolerate captivity well. Be responsible, because the life of your pet depends only on you.
Dispelling misconceptions
There is an opinion among people that the characteristics of swifts do not allow them to be kept at home. This is the first myth. Caring for and maintaining these birds at home is a troublesome task, but not hopeless. If the chick has fallen out of the nest and cannot be returned, it is possible to leave it.
Never give the swifts you find to the zoo: they will become food for birds of prey.
If a swift chick breaks its wing, it is useless to nurse it. This is the second myth. It is believed that they cannot live without the sky and quickly fade. Of course, the inability to fly is a great stress for birds. But they will survive it if they are surrounded by care.
If you doubt whether you need to save swifts and whether you can keep them at home, most likely you are not ready for such responsibility. Birds make wonderful companions, but taming them is hard work. Never forget this.
Food in nature and features of its production
The lifestyle of the black swift is such that it flies up to 800 km in a day in search of food. And all due to the fact that in nature the bird feeds on aerial plankton: flying insects, spiders.
The standard height at which birds forage is 50-100 meters. But, depending on weather conditions, the birds rise higher or descend to the ground. Birds are fastidious - they eat the largest insects possible.
During the hunt, birds do not swallow food immediately. Captured insects enter the crop, where they are treated with saliva. When processed, the food turns into a kind of ball, which they swallow or take to the nest. One lump (bolus) contains several thousand bugs.
Diet for home feeding: what can be given and what will harm
The black swift is an insectivore. At home, it is better to feed the chick and adult with crickets. They are sold in pet stores at a low price. Turkmen cockroaches, which are distinguished by their high content of nutrients and good digestibility, are also suitable.
Cockroaches are especially useful for chicks that have fallen out of the nest. If you feed them to babies, their feather cover will improve. The main thing, before serving insects, is to remove everything hard and poorly digestible: paws, head, butts.
Ant pupae are also useful for birds. But they are not sold in the store. You will have to look for this delicacy in forests and vegetable gardens. Maggots - blowfly larvae - will also work. To avoid harm, you should feed the swift larvae carefully: no more than a teaspoon per day. They put excessive stress on the liver.
You should also feed:
- mosquitoes;
- ordinary flies;
- bloodworm.
Never give your bird earthworms. This will lead to the death of the pet. Feed him with zoophobes and mealworms with caution: no more than 3 pieces. per day. Before serving, the larvae are crushed or their heads are cut off.
Temporary measures in emergency cases
Birds will die due to improper feeding. Porridge, ready-made feed mixture, mash - all this leads to the death of birds. But what you can feed swifts when there are no insects is low-fat cottage cheese or dry fish food (gammarus).
Eggs cause disturbances in the digestive system, so feeding them to the swift is prohibited. Human food, suitable for many birds, meat, fish, vegetables, is destructive for these flyers. Even cottage cheese or gammarus should not be abused: 1-2 doses per day, if there are no other options.
Since the swift will die due to the wrong food, it is better to give it insects right away, and not be “tricky” with the diet. If you find a bird on the street, go to the pet store on the way home and buy some suitable food. If this is not possible, all you have to do is arm yourself with a net and go “hunting”.
Nuances of preparation
Despite the fact that wayward birds eat only insects, you still have to prepare food for them. If you don't know how to do this correctly, this section is just for you. Be sure to wash your hands before you start cooking. Dirt and germs are dangerous to the body of birds.
Since swifts are finicky birds, they are served only freshly prepared food. Make sure that it does not give off a sour or musty aroma.
Using dried insects, clear the mixture of debris:
- fragments;
- stones;
- branches.
Place the bugs in warm water for a fresh look. Drain before serving. The same cooking scheme is also suitable for frozen insects.
Before serving to an adult swift, the insects are placed on a plate. If you are nursing a chick, you should roll the bugs into balls. Crushed or mashed fly larvae are suitable as a binding substrate.
Frequency and technique of feeding
Small swifts are fed about 14-16 times a day. The frequency of meals is every 40-60 minutes. The first feeding is at 6 am, the last feeding is at 10 pm (later is possible). It is important that the next portion completely fills the bird’s crop. You can give food with tweezers.
An adult swift is fed every 2-3 hours. If the bird is healthy, it actively asks to eat, grabbing food from your hands.
If the bird is sick or weakened, it is more difficult to feed it. To nurse such individuals, insects are ground into porridge. Use a syringe to give food. Be careful when handling the swift: do not damage the feathers. It's better to wrap it in a napkin. Pry the beak from the side and gently open it. Give your pet some food and see if he swallows. Weak birds should be given water after feeding.
The first sign that there is a problem with the baby is that he does not open his beak. If the chick refuses to eat, immediately contact your veterinarian for detailed instructions.
Relationship to water
In nature, swifts drink water while flying, for example, by catching raindrops. Sometimes they use bodies of water to quench their thirst: they slide their beak along the surface, gliding over a pond, river, or stream. Of course, you won’t be able to repeat this at home.
At home, especially swift chicks, you can water by dipping your finger in the water. Give it with food, dipping the bugs so that it does not have time to evaporate. If you decide to leave the bird at home, you can buy an automatic waterer - it’s convenient.
You can water swifts from a cup, but be very careful. First, pour water at the bottom so that the bird does not choke unknowingly. Do not leave the container in the house unattended. Make sure the liquid is fresh and clean.
Birds, having become accustomed to the house and you, will have a different attitude towards water. Over time, you can leave the bowl in the cage: the swifts will use it as a bath.
Determine age, gender, type
The easiest way to confuse a swift with a swallow. Caring for these birds will vary, so learn to identify which is which. The main distinguishing feature of these birds is their paws.
All the toes on the feet of black swifts are directed forward. This arrangement allows you to freely stand on steep surfaces. What is important for their lifestyle. The feet of swallows are different: one toe points back. This makes it easier for birds to walk on the ground or sit in trees.
Determining the age of a swift is also not difficult. This is necessary to know exactly how and how much to feed the birds. Adults differ from chicks in color: black feathers with a white spot on the neck. They have long wings - 3.5 cm longer than the tail.
The chicks are not covered with feathers, but with tubes that open up as they age. First, the body is covered with down. Then the feathers grow. The older the bird, the more it resembles an adult. You can distinguish a growing swift by its pink legs, light border on the feathers and white muzzle.
But it is impossible to determine the sex of a swift at home. They have no external signs. The only way to find out if you are a male or a female is to do a DNA test. But such a need will arise only if you decide to buy a pair for your new pet.
In the comments to the article, ask questions and share your experience.
Swifts are perhaps the most widespread suborder of birds on Earth. Its representatives can be found in almost all countries and on all continents (except, perhaps, Antarctica). In total, ornithologists count about eight dozen species of swifts. There are four representatives of swifts living in Russia; one of them is the black swift, also known as the tower swift, due to its love for high spiers and the almost complete absence of the need to descend to the “sinful earth.” This bird, amazing in many respects, is worthy of a detailed discussion.
What does a bird look like?
Black swift (Latin name Apus apus)- a very small bird, about the same as an ordinary sparrow. At the same time, visually it looks larger, rather resembling the size of a starling, since it has much longer wings than those of a sparrow. 
So, the body length of our “hero” is 160-170 mm (for a sparrow, for comparison, 150-180), and the wing length is 165-180 mm, with a wingspan of 420-480 mm (for a sparrow it is at least two times less).
The weight of the bird averages from 30 to 50 g (a sparrow weighs a maximum of 40 g, a starling - about 75 g).
The shape of the tail is the same as that of a swallow, with a notch in the shape of the Latin letter “V”, the length of the tail is about 80 mm. In general, it should be noted that the external similarity between a swift and a swallow is significant - when watching birds in the sky, they can easily be confused. A characteristic difference is the length and shape of the wing (in the swift it is longer and has a characteristic sickle-shaped bend).
The build of Apus apus is dense, the head is large, slightly flattened, a short wide beak with a very large mouth opening is also flattened along the horizontal plane (this shape provides the bird with the ability to easily capture tiny insects that fill the air, just as huge whales suck in small plankton ). 
The bird’s legs are strong, but very small, which is not surprising, because for their “direct purpose” (for walking on the ground) this “celestial” practically does not use them. But the fingers have sharp, forward-curved claws, which provide their owner with excellent tenacity and allow them to hold on well even on vertical supports (rocks, walls, etc.).
Did you know? The bird's Latin name "apus" comes from the ancient Greek "ἄπους", which means "legless". Almost all members of the squad are so helpless on the ground that they are not even able to take off due to their wings being too long compared to their short legs. The black swift is the only exception: this bird can make a jump from the ground, and once in the air, it manages to spread its wings.
The structure of the bird's eyes is specific: the lower eyelids are covered with dense plumage, protecting the organs of vision from air currents and collisions with small dust particles or insects, which, given the flight speed of these birds, is very important.
The main color is black with a brown-green tint; there is a white mark only on the throat. In young individuals, feathers have lighter endings, primarily on the wings and forehead.
A distinctive feature of all swifts is a very loud, piercing cry, similar to chirping.
The main habitat of tower swifts is the territory of Europe, including Ukraine, as well as the northern and central parts of Asia (from Transbaikalia in the east to Israel, Palestine and Syria in the west, from the steppe, forest-steppe and partially forest zones of Siberia, up to the border with the tundra in the north , to the Himalayas in the south) and northern Africa. 
Although we are talking about a heat-loving bird, in summer it can fly quite far to the north, not only into the tundra, but even further, right up to the Arctic shores.
Thus, in the countries of Western Europe, the northern border of the habitat of this representative of birds is limited to seventy degrees north latitude; in Siberia, this border runs somewhat further south - at approximately 66-60° north latitude, and in the Urals it corresponds to 60° north latitude.
For “winter quarters,” these intrepid travelers go to Africa and southeast Asia (mostly India, but sometimes they fly to Thailand).
The human occupation of the swifts' natural habitat has led to the fact that today the bird can more often be found in cities than in the “full-fledged” wild nature (perhaps only in Denmark and Finland black swifts choose both urban and forest forms of existence).
A distinctive feature of all swifts is their speed. The Apus apus we are considering is capable of accelerating in the air up to 111 km/h and this, by the way, is not the limit (the needle-tailed relatives of the black swift reach a speed of 170-180 km/h). For comparison: the same swallows fly no more than 60 km in an hour. 
It is interesting that swifts fly not only quickly (without slowing down even before approaching the nest), but also for a long time. This amazing bird even has the ability to sleep in the sky, catching the rising air current and only from time to time slightly swaying its wings right in its sleep.
Did you know? The fastest bird in the world is the peregrine falcon (a type of falcon). Its limit is 300 km/h. But we are talking about dive speed, that is, movement from top to bottom, while the peregrine falcon makes horizontal flight no faster than 100 km/h, so in this sense, the needle-tailed swift is an absolute record holder!
It is said that the tower swift can spend years in the sky, resting, feeding and even mating on the fly. In fact, this information is somewhat exaggerated, although the reality is indeed impressive.
Thus, Swedish scientists (Lund University) installed special sensors on several dozen birds, and a few years later, having caught 19 individuals from the control group, analyzed the information received and published the results of the experiment in the journal Current Biology. 
It turns out that during the year, black swifts behave like any other bird during the nesting period for two months, but the rest of the time they spend no more than 1% of their time out of flight.
Going to warm regions in August, the birds can next touch the ground only ten months later, having already returned to their homeland, while some individuals sometimes sit on tree branches during wintering, but, in principle, they do not feel any particular need for this.
Did you know? Scientists have calculated that the tower swift can cover a distance equal to seven flights to the moon (meaning a round trip) during its life!
Oddly enough, the life of a black swift, so complex in terms of energy costs, is not so short. On average, birds live from seven to ten years, but there are cases when some individuals reached the “honorable” age of 20 years (the recorded record is 21 years).
As was said, there is a period in the life of a black swift when the bird needs to temporarily say goodbye to its usual love of the sky. We are talking about the nesting period.
Returning from wintering in late April - early May, the birds begin their mating season: they look out for a partner, “establish relationships” with him, collect material for building a nest, and finally perform the “act of love” itself (note that all this is still happening in flight!).
For the nest, everything that is directly accessible is used: feathers, fluff, blades of grass, small twigs, straw, leaves, threads, hair, wool, pieces of fabric, etc. 
The bird glues the “building materials” selected in this way with its own saliva (an excellent glue that instantly sets in air no worse than cement), ultimately constructing a kind of round bowl with low (no more than 1 cm) sides.
Important! In the wild, black swifts lived on high cliffs, therefore, having become “city dwellers,” these birds retained their passion for heights. If possible, the bird will happily build a nest at 2000 meters above ground level!
The initially built nest is not very large, its diameter usually does not exceed 9 cm with a tray up to 5 cm, however, in the process of refurbishment and renovation, the “house” can grow to more impressive sizes: up to 15 cm in total diameter with a tray width of 7-8 cm, with a side height of 2-3 cm.
True to its name, the tower swift chooses the upper parts of buildings - roofs, places under eaves, cracks, window frames, and in the wild - tree branches, sometimes hollows, as a place to build a nest.
Black swifts are very careful when choosing a place to build a nest, managing to camouflage it so that the shelter can only be discovered when an adult bird appears nearby.
By the end of May, the female lays eggs (usually no more than two) measuring 26 x 16 mm, white in color and elongated in shape in a freshly built dwelling. The female’s task during this period is to incubate the eggs, the male’s task is to obtain food for both (however, some scientists claim that the birds incubate the eggs alternately). 
Chicks are usually born at the beginning of June (incubation lasts three weeks). The young are born without feathers and in the first days are completely helpless, but after a few days the first gray fluff covers the chicks’ bodies.
Important! The black swift, like other birds, is a warm-blooded species. But still, it has the unique ability to greatly change body temperature depending on environmental conditions, which allows not only chicks, but also adults to fall into a kind of hibernation in particularly cold weather- as a result, the need for energy decreases, and the bird is able to survive.
Parents feed their young for six weeks. Small insects are used as “baby food”, which, with the help of the same miraculous saliva, are glued together into small lumps-briquettes. This allows you to deliver from four hundred to one and a half thousand insects to the nest at a time.
During the day, the bird can bring food to the nest 30-40 times, but it happens that it has to fly far for prey. Interestingly, the cubs can survive without parental care for quite a long time, falling into a kind of suspended animation, accompanied by a decrease in body temperature and slower breathing.
Having survived on the “old supplies” for a week, upon the return of their parents, the kids very quickly make up for lost time through active nutrition. 
The innate activity of a small bird leads to the fact that at an early age the chicks very often fall out of the nest, this especially often happens during rain. It is almost impossible to feed such a baby (due to the specifics of the diet), therefore, if there is such a possibility, it is best to return the “prodigal” chick that survived after the fall to the nest (the myth that the parents will not accept it due to the presence of a “human” smell is not true has nothing to do with reality).
Did you know? For several years now, a unique holiday has been held in Jerusalem at the beginning of March, dedicated to the meeting of local tower swifts returning from wintering to the Western Wall and building their nests on it.
Having barely learned to fly, the chicks leave the nest and begin an independent life. In August, they head south along with the entire flock, but do not return with adults the following spring, remaining in warm regions for 2-3 years, until they reach sexual maturity. But, upon returning to their homeland for the first time, they immediately acquire their own offspring.
The black swift is a flocking bird, this applies to both travel and nesting. Usually the number of individuals in a community is several hundred.
Another amazing feature of black swifts is called the word “philopatry” (literally - love for the homeland). These birds always return exactly to the place from which they flew.
Apus apus feeds exclusively on insects (“aerial plankton”), which the bird catches on the fly, using its wide beak like a net.
Midges, bugs, mosquitoes and flies act as food, but a small predator can also feast on larger prey - butterflies, beetles, spiders, gadflies and other representatives of the world of entomology.
As you know, birds are excellent helpers for humans in the fight against insects harmful to crops, but sometimes they themselves can cause considerable damage to the garden.
Did you know?In some eastern countries (China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and others), even bird nests built from the edible saliva of swifts are eaten - however, we are talking about a different species of the order, because black swifts do not nest in this region. But the love for such a delicacy (its cost can reach up to three thousand dollars) in the 70s of the last century led to the fact that the population of unfortunate birds in the Celestial Empire was almost completely exterminated.
Black swifts do not belong to one or the other of these categories: vegetables, fruits and berries are not part of the diet of these birds, and the insects they eat are not agricultural pests (although swifts are definitely worth thanking for the extermination of mosquitoes and poplar moths). 
Thus, a person and a swift could remain neutral towards each other, but, unfortunately, the birds were not lucky.
People noticed that the meat of this bird (especially its chicks) is very tender and tasty, which is why the destruction of nests in some regions of Europe sometimes became widespread.
A bird that spends its entire life in the sky is completely unsuitable for life in captivity. Moreover, the appearance of the swift is not at all as colorful as that of parrots or canaries, and the voice is by no means a nightingale.
Therefore, when it comes to keeping a tower swift at home, we usually mean an attempt to save a found creature (wounded or not yet able to fly), with the goal of subsequently returning it to the wild.
House for the swift
“Legless” birds require a very special approach to housing. Swifts cannot be kept in a cage, since this type of bird is not adapted to walking on the ground, or even to sitting on a perch. In a cage, such a bird will very quickly receive irreparable injuries - broken feathers and wings.
For this reason, for a live find, you need to equip a large box with sides that are at least twice the total length of the bird’s body including the tail. It is fundamentally important that, having spread its wings completely, the “tenant” does not touch the walls of his home with them. 
To avoid injury, it is advisable to cover all the walls of the box with soft material, not forgetting to make several holes in them so that the pet does not suffocate (the top of the house must be covered, otherwise the bird will try to get out, which means it may get hurt).
Any moisture-absorbing material from what is sold in pet stores is suitable as bedding, but you can get by with ordinary napkins.
Important! The less lighting in the box, the calmer its occupant will tolerate temporary captivity.
The box should be placed in a dark place so that when the lid opens, the bird does not get scared and injure itself. It is possible, although not necessary, to build a shelter made of soft material inside the box into which your pet can crawl for safety.
The ambient temperature should fluctuate between 25-35°C, although swifts tolerate cold and heat well, but a draft can greatly harm them. The best option is if the heat source is located under the bottom of the box, and not on the side or top.
To feed a swift, you don’t have to run through the fields swinging a net (although that’s also an option). Some pet stores sell special food for insectivorous birds. It is not very cheap, but we are talking about a rescue operation! 
It is important to know that swifts, unlike swallows, do not immediately react to improper feeding. But this does not make the consequences any less tragic: first of all, the bird begins to lose its flight feathers, and for a creature that spends its entire life in the sky, this is tantamount to a death sentence.
Errors in choosing food also lead to irreversible damage to the liver, the entire digestive system and even the skeleton.
If the problem with insect prey cannot be solved, you can try to find an alternative: use low-fat baby meat puree, low-fat cottage cheese and dry fish food such as Daphnia Magna.
All this is dried, mixed in equal parts with the addition of powdered calcium gluconate tablets and little by little fed to the “sufferer”. But be sure to use any insect that you manage to get close to! 
The food should not be cold; It's even better if it's slightly warmed up. The optimal amount of food for a small bird at one time is approximately the volume of one pea.
Important! Chicks should be fed every one and a half to two hours (except at night), for an adult bird three times a day is enough.
- minced meat (the most common mistake);
- mealworms;
- white maggots (fly larvae);
- earthworms;
- dry food for cats or dogs (especially canned food);
- eggs.
When the bird gets stronger, it should be prepared for the solemn moment of returning to freedom, reducing the amount of food to normalize its weight.
It is best to release the swift in the evening, choosing a fine day for this. It is advisable to get out into the open, ideally on a hill, but beware of tall grass, this will make it easier for you to find your pet in case of failure.
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