chimney flare ( Chaetura pelagica ) is a fast-growing Apodidae family bird. A member of the genus Chaetura , is closely related to Vaux's fast and fast Chapman; in the past, all three are sometimes considered to be of a kind. It has no subspecies. The rapid chimney is a medium-sized gray bird, blackish with very long, slender wings and very short legs. Like all swifts, it is unable to perch, and can only be attached vertically to the surface.
Fine chimney feeds mainly on flying insects, but also on air spiders. These are generally married for life. It builds the nest of twigs and saliva attached to the vertical surface, which is almost always a manmade structure, usually a chimney. Female spawn 4-5 white egg. Young hatch altricial after 19 days and fledge a month later. The average live chimney 4.6 years .
Video Chimney swift
Taxonomy and systematics
When he first described the chimney in 1758, Carl Linnaeus named it Hirundo pelagica , believed it to be a swallow. This misunderstanding continued into the 1800s, with ornithologists calling it the "American Swallow Bird" (eg Mark Catesby) or "Chimney Swallow" (eg John James Audubon). In 1825, James Francis Stephens moved this and another small Swift, short-tailed short tail to the genus Chaetura , from which it remained, although some authorities in the 1800s assigned it to various types which is now obsolete. genera. It has no subspecies. The closest relative of chimney swift is Vaux's fast. Scientists believe that two species evolved from a common ancestor being forced into the southeast and southwest corner of North America by glacial progress. Separated thousands of years by a vast ice sheet, survivors evolved into two species still separated by a wide gap in the center of the continent. It is also closely related to Chapman's fast; in the past, they were sometimes treated as one species.
The name of the chimney swift genus, Chaetura , is a combination of two Ancient Greek words: chaite , meaning "feather" or "spine", and oura which means "tail". This is the exact description of the bird's tail, since the axis of all ten ruffs ends with prominent sharp spots. The specific name pelagica comes from the Greek pelagikos , which means "from the sea". It is considered a reference to a nomadic lifestyle rather than a reference to the sea, a theory reinforced by the subsequent assignment of the specific name pelasgia (after the ancient Pelasgi nomadic tribe of ancient Greece) of the same species by other ornithologists. The name generally refers to the preferred nesting site and its fast flight.
Maps Chimney swift
Description
This is medium speed, measuring from 12 to 15 cm (4.7 to 59 inches) in length, with a wingspan of 27 to 30 cm (11 to 12 inches) and weights ranging from 17 to 30 g (0.60 to 1.06 oz). The sexes are identical in feathers, although the average male is slightly heavier than the female. Adult fur is a dark olive of soot above and a grayish brown beneath it, with slightly paler and closed jaw hairs, and a much more pale throat. The top is the most uniform color of all Chaetura swifts, showing a slight contrast between the back and the buttocks. His beak is black, like his legs and feet. The iris is dark brown. Teeth hair (which is held by young birds) is very similar to that of an adult bird, but with a whitish tip to the outer web of the secondary and terial groups.
Chimney swift wings are slender, curved, and long, extending up to 1.5cm (3.8cm) beyond the bird tail when folded. The wingspan is pointed, which helps reduce air turbulence (and therefore drags) during flight. The humerus (bone in the inner wing) is short enough, while the bone further out (further) along the long wing, a combination that allows the bird to pack very quickly. In flight, he holds his wings stiffly, alternating between a fast, vibrating flap, and sliding longer. His flight profile is widely described as a "cigar with wings" - a description that was first used by Roger Tory Peterson. Although the bird often appears to defeat its wings asynchronously during flight, photographic and stroboscopic studies have shown that the birds beat them simultaneously. The illusion that it was otherwise increased by a very fast and very erratic flight, with many rapid changes of direction.
The spindle legs of swiftness, like all swift, are very short. Her legs are small but strong, with very short fingers that culminate with sharp and curved claws. Her toes are anisodactyl - three forward, one back - like most birds, but the chimney can turn her hind legs (hallux) forward to help her get a better grip. Unlike the feet and legs of most birds, those with a quick chimney do not have scales; instead, they are covered with delicate skin.
The tail is short and square, measuring only 1.90 to 2.15 inches (4.8-5.5 cm). The ten feathers have an axle extending as much as 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) outside the propeller, ending with sharp and stiff spots. It helps the bird to support itself against the vertical surface.
The chimney has big, deep eyes. It is protected by small patches of coarse, black, and hairy fur, located in front of each eye. Quickly can change the angle of these feathers, which can help reduce glare. It's remote and, like some birds of prey, this is fast bifoveal: each eye has both a temporal and central fovea. It is a small depression in the retina where the highest visual acuity, and helps make its vision very acute. Like most vertebrates, he is able to focus both eyes at once; However, he is also able to focus single eyes independently.
The bill is very small, with a culman whose length is only 5 mm (0.20 inches). However, the hole is very large, extends backward under his eyes, and allows the bird to open its mouth very wide. Unlike other insectivorous birds, this bird does not have coarse feathers at the base of its beak.
Similar species
The chimney looks very similar to Vaux's fast, but slightly larger, with relatively longer wings and tail, slower wings and a greater tendency to fly. It tends to be darker on the breasts and buttocks than fast Vaux, although there is some overlap in the feather coloring. It can be as much as 30 percent heavier than the speed of Vaux, and its wings, which are proportionately narrower, show a clear bulge in the second inside. Chimney stack is smaller, more pale and shorter than black fast. In Central America, it is most akin to the Chapman's quick, but more pale (matte olive than black glossy) and has a stronger contrast between the pale throat and the rest of the lower part than the more uniformly colored Chapman.
Range and habitat
As visitors breed in most of the eastern parts of the United States and southern eastern Canada, smokestacks rapidly migrate to South America for the winter. It is a rare summer visitor to the western US, and has been recorded as a homeless in Anguilla, Barbados, Greenland, Jamaica, Portugal, England, and the US Virgin Islands. It is found on top of an open country, savannahs, forested slopes and damp forests.
The winter chimney swift point was only discovered in 1944, when bands of banded (ringed) birds in North America were found in Peru. The Peruvian native has been wearing a band as a necklace.
Behavior
The quick chimney is a gregarious species, and rarely seen alone. Generally hunt in groups of two or three, migrate in loose swarms from 6-20, and (after the mating season ends) sleep in large communal enclaves of hundreds or thousands of birds. Like all swifts, this is a great aerialist, and rarely seen during breaks. Drink on the wings, shifting the surface of the water with its beak. He also soaked in the wings, glided over the surface of the water body, briefly struck his chest into the water, then flew again, shaking his feathers as he went. It has been noted by pilots flying over a mile above the earth's surface, including those seen at 7,300 feet (2,200 m). He can not afford to stand up like most birds; on the contrary, sticking to the vertical surface. If disturbed at rest, the chimney will pat its wings very hard once or twice against its body; it does this either in place, or when dropping a few feet to a lower location. This behavior can produce a "rumbling" loud noise if the large birds of the birds are disturbed. This sound is considered the way birds scare potential predators.
Feed
Like all swifts, the chimney is fast feeding on the wings. Studies have shown that 95 percent of the food is flying insects, including various types of flies, ants, wasps, bees, whiteflies, aphids, scale insects, stone flies and dragonflies. It also takes air spiders that drift in their threads. It is an important predator of pest species such as red imported fire ants and curculio roots of clover. The researchers estimate that a pair of adults who provide a nest with three young people consume a weight equivalent to at least 5,000-6,000 insects per day. Like many species of birds, the chimney rapidly periodically coughs pellets composed of bits of digested prey stuff.
During the breeding season, at least half of the chimney swift attacks occur within 0.5 km (0.3 mi) of the nest; However, the distance is up to 6 km (3.7 mi). While most of his food was confiscated after the air pursuit, some were taken from the leaves of the trees; birds hovering near the end of the branch or down through the upper canopy level. The chimney is usually fast enough to fly high, although it goes down in cold or rainy weather. While eating, it regularly occurs in small groups, and sometimes hunts by swallowing, especially the purple barns and martins; in mixed species groups, usually among the lower leaflets. There is at least one note of a quick chimney that tried to steal a dragonfly from a purple martin, and has been observed chasing after other purples. In general, this is a diurnal feeder that remains active until the afternoon. However, there are notes, especially during the migration period, from smokestacks that feed well after dark on a brightly lit building.
This species shows two peak weights annually: one at the beginning of the breeding season, and a shorter one before the migration begins southward in the fall. Its lowest weight is usually recorded during the breeding season, when it also begins to completely molt. Chimney swift weight before migration is smaller than some passerines, indicating that it has to refuel the trip at various stopover points.
Breeding
The quick chimney is a monogamous rancher who usually marries for life, although a small number of birds switch partners. The couple do a viewing flight together, glide with their wings raised in a steep "V", and sometimes sway from side to side. Birds breed arrived in mid-March in the southern US, and until mid-May in the Canadian province.
Before the arrival of European colonists to North America, chimneys lodged in hollow trees; now, it uses a structure built almost exclusively by humans. While the occasional nest is still built on a hollow tree (or, unusually, in the abandoned woodpecker's nest), most are now found in smokestacks, with smaller numbers in the vent, dark corners of lightly used buildings, water tanks, or well. The nest is a shallow bracket made of twigs, which birds gather on the plane, smashing them from a tree. Stick glued (and nest to vertical surface) with lots of bird saliva. During the mating season, each adult salivary gland is more than twice that size, from 7 mm - 2 mm (0.276 in × 0.079 inch) in non-breeding seasons up to 14 mm ÃÆ'â € "5 mm (0.55 Ã, in ÃÆ' â € "0,20Ã, in) during the breeding season.
Unlike some fast species, which are paired in flight, the chimney is able to mate while sticking to the vertical surface near their nest. They copulate every day, until the clutch is finished. Females usually put 4-5 eggs , though the clutch size ranges from 2 to 7 . The eggs, long and elliptical, are quite shiny, smooth and white, and are 20 mm - 13 mm (0.79 inches at 0.51 inches). Each weighs almost 10 percent of a woman's weight. Incubated by both parents, the eggs hatch after 19 days . Baby chimney swifts are altricial - naked, blind and helpless when hatching. Fledglings leave the nest after a month.
The average duration of chimney swift life is 4.6 years , but someone is known to have lived more than 14 years . Originally banded as an adult, and recaptured in another milkfish operation some 12.5 years later.
Predators and parasites
Mississippi kites, peregrine hawks and merlins are raptors who are known to take adult chimneys in flight, being among several selectable avian hunters fast enough to overtake precisely named fast on the wings. East screech-owls have been seen attacking colonies, such as non-avian predators including eastern rat snakes, northern raccoons, and tree squirrels. It's most likely to take a nest but it might take some nesting adults as well. When disturbed by potential predators (including humans) in the colony, the adult chimneys flap their wings together after bending backwards and taking flight, making a very loud sound known as "boom" or "lightning sound". When disturbed, the children sleep to make a loud, hoarse voice, raah, raah . Both sounds seem to be designed to surprise potential predators.
The chimney quickly carries a number of internal and external parasites. This is the host type for the aproctella nuda nematode species, the mite species of Euchineustathia tricapitosetosa , and the species of the biting bug Dennyus dubius , and is also known to carry the species tapeworm Pseudochoanotaenia collocaliae . The nest is known to have the Hemiptera Cimexopsis nyctali species, which are similar to bedbugs and can (on rare occasions) become pest species in homes.
Voice
The chimney has a calling call, which consists of a row of fast and high-pitched hooves. Sometimes it gives a single chirp.
Conservation status
In 2010, the International Union for Nature Conservation changed the chimney status from concerns that at least became nearly threatened. Although the global population is estimated to be <15 million, it has dropped dramatically in most of its reach. The causes of population decline are largely unclear, but may be related to changes in the insect community due to the use of pesticides in the first half of the 20th century. In Canada, they are listed as threatened by COSEWIC for several years with a possible future listing as the Schedule 1 species of the Species at Risk Act. In the US, the chimney was protected by the 1918 Migration Agreement Act. Neither the bird nor the nest could be removed from the chimney without permission issued by the federal government.
The population may have risen historically with the introduction of smokestacks to North America by European settlers, providing abundant nesting opportunities.
After the temperature suddenly descends, the chimney sometimes hunts down low concrete streets (perhaps after insect prey is attracted to a warmer road), where a collision with a vehicle becomes more likely. Severe storms, like hurricanes, encountered during migration can have a serious impact on the survival rate of chimney's swift. The swifts trapped in the 2005 Wilma Storm were swept as far north as Canada's Atlantic and Western Europe. More than 700 were found dead. The following year, large numbers in the province of Quebec, Canada showed a 62 percent decline, and the overall population in the province was halved.
History of observation
In 1899, Mary Day of New Jersey observed a pair of chimneys lodged in the chimney, and recorded an incubation period of 19 days. The first detailed study of chimneys began in 1915 by the self-taught ornithologist Althea Sherman in Iowa. He commissioned a 28-foot tall tower, with a similar design to the chimney, with stairs and peeping holes mounted for easy viewing. Chimney chimneys nest in the tower, and for more than fifteen years, he recorded his observations carefully, filling more than 400 pages. Sherman said that although the tower was designed with limited knowledge of the nesting behavior in the chimney, after years of observations he believed that the original design was ideal.
Note
References
Text cited
- Chantler, Phil (1999a). Swifts: A Guide to Swifts and Treeswifts of the World (2nd ed.). London, England: Pica Press. ISBN 978-1-8734-0383-9.
- Chantler, Phil (1999b). "Family of Apodidae (Swifts)". In del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew; Sargatal, Jordi. World Bird Handbook, vol. 5: Barn-owls to Hummingbirds . Barcelona, ​​â € <â €
- Kyle, Paul D.; Kyle, Georgean Z. (2005). Chimney Chimney: The Mysterious American Bird on a Fireplace . College Station, TX, USA: Texas A & amp; M University Press. ISBN: 978-1-58544-371-0. Ã,
External links
- North American Bird - Chimney Smoke
- Chimney Chimney Conservation Project - Wild Floating Wildlife Association
- Ralph W. Dexter's research on fast chimney
- Photos from Flickr World Bird Field Guide
- "Chimney swift media". Bird Bird Collection .
- Photos and video breeding behavior from Cornell Lab from the Nestcam Ornithology project
- Sound recordings at Florida Museum of Natural History
- Audio recording from chimney swift on Xeno-canto.
- Chimney photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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