Glossy Swiftlet

Description:

Apodidae; Collocalia esculenta (Linnaeus, 1758). Small black Swift with extra long wings. When I walk under their nests, they swoop back and forth just above my head trying to scare me off with machine-gun-like bursts of chirps.

Habitat:

Behind our house, there is a concrete tower which supports a water tank. The beams on the underside of the platform make corners where they join. These corners seem to be ideal for these swifts. They have been been building nests there, generation after generation for about 18 years, ever since the tower was built. Just before starting to put together this spotting, I went out to check and saw that right now there are three occupied nests.

Notes:

These handsome, streamlined little birds are delightful to have around the outside of the house. Many of you will have seen a recent TV documentary about a certain part of China where people provide little nesting boxes, for these swifts, inside inside their houses because they believe that it brings them luck. I think that is just wonderful, but the documentary did not mention, as far as I can remember, the "downside". When I walk under our water tower, I don't need to look up to see if there are birds in residence. I just look at the base of the columns and if there are birds, there are also little mountains of droppings on the concrete flooring. More seriously, these birds do not appear to be very good nest builders. Some times they just come back to last season's nest and clean it up a little before settling in to lay, I am not sure, but I think only one egg. That often ends in disaster because I have often seen a fallen nest and broken egg on the floor. Sometimes they are more industrious and tear down the old nest, before starting anew with a fresh one. This appears to give a better result.