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Field
Guide IDs: BREEDING:
Mountainous country
near cliffs and canyons, occ coastal sea cliffs. ?
broods. DISPLAYS:
Courtship and cop
performed in flight; male and female come together
from opposite directions, engage, and may tumble
slowly downward end over end for as much as
500'. NEST:
Deep in crack or
crevice of rock wall, occ in suitable building; of
feathers glued together and to rock with saliva.
Construction very prolonged. EGGS:
White or creamy
white, unmarked. 0.8" (21 mm). DIET:
Flying
insects. CONSERVATION:
Winters s through
Mexico to Honduras. NOTES:
Nests in small
colonies of up to a dozen pairs. Traditional use of
nest and roost sites over long time periods.
Postbreeding flocks of up to 200 roost together in
rock crevices. Able to become torpid during periods
of cool temperatures and low food availability.
Said to be the fastest of the N.A. swifts. Feet
adapted for lateral grasping enable clinging to
soft material such as feathers which compose the
nest. A number of pairs
nest in crevices and cavities under roof tiles and
within the eaves of buildings on main campus.
Communal roosts begin to form in late summer, and
by winter, a flock of 50-100 roosts in or near the
Main Quad. These birds forage widely (and high)
during the day, but on a winter evening, they can
be easily seen circling over the Quad before
descending to their roost. ESSAYS: Site
Tenacity;
Copulation;
Temperature
Regulation;
Communal
Roosting. REFERENCES:
Collins, 1983;
Dobkin et al., 1986. |
