Swifts | Apodidae

Gierzwaluwen | Vencejos

A cigar-shaped body, long scythe-like wings held stiff in a glide, and a short tail, square or forked; the bill is tiny, but the gape tears open to below the eye, so that the head itself is the net. Everything happens in the air: the catching of drifting insects and spiders, drinking, bathing, picking up nest material, mating, and outside the breeding season sleeping too, circling at height. The catch is bound together in the throat with saliva into a ball and given to the chick in one delivery; the nest is a shallow cup of material caught on the wing, also glued with saliva, in a crevice, under a roof tile or in a chimney. One to three white eggs, a long stay in the nest, and a fledgling that leaves with a fully grown wing and is independent from that moment; the four short toes carry strong hooked claws and in many species can all be turned to point forward.