Does anyone know for sure what the space cadet birds wheeling in the sky above Stroud Green in summer are? I don't believe they're swallows despite the popular old saying - they're house martins, aren't they? Am I right? And where do they nest?
Go and get your bird book and tell me how you can tell a swift from a house martin on the wing at 100 feet in silhouette. Very similar, and from the small print I always thought house martins were the town birds and swifts their country cousins.
I know swallows which swoop low over river meadows and such, and there's a nice colony of sand martins in an artificial cliff at the bird sanctuary down near Kew.
Swifts have a much more defined 'V' in their tail and more likely to be found in cities nowadays.
Don't think house martins make the squeaky schreeches.
I was thinking about this the other day and concluded that they can't be house martins because you never see their nests (usually made of mud in the eaves of houses) because there isn't enough mud in town.
There seem to be a lot of swifts about everywhere this year - which is heartening given the long winter and consequent shortage of insects seemed like it would be bad news for the high-flyers.
Common Swifts have longer, thinner wings and are all over greyish, although the young look scaly because they have white fringes to the feathers. House Martins are chunkier and have white underparts and bluish upperparts. (Barn) Swallows are blue above, white below, with a red throat patch and much longer tail streamers. <br><br>The birds you're talking about are most likely Common Swifts. The young all flock together after fledging and before flying off to Africa for the winter. They'll be catching insects to fatten up for their migration. They make a very recognisable 'screaming' sound. <br>
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From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8569267.stm
Swifts make their nests in holes in buildings from where they can launch themselves back onto the wing as they cannot take off from the ground.
These are birds that don't touch down for two years or more after they first leave the nest. Wow
I know swallows which swoop low over river meadows and such, and there's a nice colony of sand martins in an artificial cliff at the bird sanctuary down near Kew.
Sounds like one for Springwatch.