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 the immediate vicinity of human habitation. Where these birds settle, it is easy to notice their nests in the form of a bowl. It often happens that swallow chicks fall out of the nest. This happens much more often than other birds.
Adults spend most of their time in flight, earning 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. An open mouth targets flies and other insects. When enough of them are gathered, the bird returns to the nest and feeds the contents of the beak to its offspring. On average, from 4 to 6 eggs per clutch. If they all survive, and the chicks of the swallows grow healthy, then we can assume that they are very lucky. 18 days after masonry, offspring hatch. If the living conditions are favorable, there is plenty of food and water, then these birds can nest two or even three times during the summer. The swallow chick, the photo of which is presented above, is born blind, with a large yellow mouth, in which he constantly demands to put a portion of food. Parents diligently look after, struggling to warm and feed stupid kids. The female during the first week warms her cubs with her warmth, flying out for a short time for food. At this time, the male replaces her.
However, the swallow chicks do not always survive. It happens that for some reason the calf is on the ground. In this case, do not pick it up and try to return it to the nest. According to zoologists, the swallow chicks that have fallen from their house are weak or sick individuals, possibly discarded by the parents themselves. In doing so, adult birds give a chance to grow and grow stronger in the remaining individuals. It is difficult to answer the question how many chicks of 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, parents live with older offspring, accompanying them during the flight, and 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 long-livers met, whose age was 16 years!
The well-being of the swallows depends not only on the amount of food, but also on weather conditions. Since these birds also drink on the fly, their mass death occurs on a hot, dry summer. Bad weather also threatens life. In non-flying weather, birds hide in nests, condemning 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 adverse environmental conditions, urbanization, climatic disasters. In addition, in some countries, such as Italy, swallow hunting is allowed.
