Tuesday, July 17, 2001

Chimney swifts coming to roost

Hearing funny noises in your chimney? Maybe bats? If you are one of the lucky ones, you are hosting chimney swifts. Twice I have had these strange little birds, with stiff tails and fingernail feet, in my chimney.
   Some say, in flight, they look like cigars with wings.
   I love them. Last night, just before sunset, I went in the back yard to listen to my neighbor's martins having a last run before bed time. With them were chimney swifts, making their entirely distinctive but equally conversational noises.
   Unless they are in your chimney you are not likely to get a good look at a chimney swift. Their habitat is air, where they do everything but nest.
   Food in flight
   Their short, stout bodies are sooty gray. Tiny beaks, backed by a cavernous mouth, are held in the open position as they whiz back and forth, high overhead, catching supper or breakfast.
   Only about 5 inches long, adults weigh less than an ounce. They are unable to perch on their small, almost vestigial, feet which are used for clinging and scaling. No need to worry about getting them to move when you need to fire up the fireplace. They will be long gone, to Peru, where they spend the winters.
   They come to the eastern and southern half of the United States to breed. Every year they show up during Spring Bird walks at Blucher Park, fluting to each other, and looking down at us as they make swift passes high above.

Cornell Laboratory of Orinithology

Chimney swifts in flight resemble cigars with wings.

   They formerly nested in the large chimneys of the Blucher Houses. That habitat, like many others, has now been closed to them. Unable to perch or stand upright like other songbirds, they must roost on rough, vertical surfaces. Before finding chimneys, they nested in hollow trees. Now, due to the use of slick, metal chimneys and the increasing desire of homeowners to cap their chimneys, it becomes ever more difficult for them to find a roosting or nesting site.
   Control insects
   Since their diet consists almost entirely of insects, they are a wonderful control device, much safer than pesticides. Their nests are built of tiny twigs, pasted together with sticky saliva. The finished job resembles a half saucer, about 4 inches at the wall and protruding only 2 or 3 inches. Both sexes participate in the building.
   In the completed nest, the female lays, usually, four to five white eggs, which the male assists in incubating. Sometimes there is a third bird, called a "helper," which helps with incubation and chick rearing. Hatching occurs after 19 days.
   Fourteen days later, eyes are open, and after five more days, the young begin to leave the nest, clinging to the walls of the surrounding shaft. Then they do begin to clamor. When adults arrive, they beg for food. Parent swifts deposit a bolus of collected insects in each little craw.
   Like purple martins, when breeding is over, swifts gather in large flocks for migration. Finding places to spend the night can be difficult for this group with special roosting problems. For Internet information on this interesting bird try the following Web site:
   www.tpwd.state.tx.us/nature/birding/chimneyswift-index.htm.
  
   Phyllis Yochem has been a birder in the Corpus Christi area since 1960.
  
  
  

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Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi resident, has studied birds in Texas since 1960.

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