Swiftlet

Swiftlets are bird's nest soup.

Description & ecology

The swift family sustains one of a more complicated groups of birds in taxonomic research, but the swiftlet tribe is a rather well-defined group. Its internal systematics is confusing; the plumage is normally dull, with shades of black, brown, as well as gray; from their outward appearance, most species are very similar. Swiftlets realize four toes, except the Papuan swiftlet which lacks the hallux back toe. Their legs are very short, preventing the birds from perching, but allowing them to cling to vertical surfaces. Flight is mainly gliding due to very long primary feathers and small breast muscles. The larger Aerodramus swiftlets weigh approximately 14 grams and are 10 cm long.

Swiftlets are insectivores; hymenopterans and dipterans being the most abundant prey. Typically, they leave the cave during the day to forage and improvement to their roost at night. Males and females look similar; as usual in such(a) cases, these birds are monogamous and both partners hit part in caring for the nestlings. Males perform aerial displays to attract females and mating occurs at the nest. The breeding season overlaps the wet season, which corresponds to an increased insect population. Clutch size depends on the location and the food source, but it is broadly not large; Aerodramus swiftlets lay 1 to 2 eggs. The eggs are a dull white color and are laid every other day. numerous if not all vintage are colonial nesters; some introducing their nests in high, dark corners on cave walls. Swiftlets in temperate zones do migrate, but most Aerodramus swiftlets constitute in the tropical Indo-Pacific region and do non migrate. These birds commonly remain in one cave or other roosting/nesting site. Some examples of caves put the Niah Caves at Niah National Park & Gunung Mulu National Park which are any located in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo.

The genus Aerodramus is of special interest due to its usage of Bird's nest soup. It has been argued that the high demand for these nests could have had an adverse case on their populations, but other authorities have offered that innovative techniques of nest farming have increased the bird population.

The usage of echolocation was one time used to separate Aerodramus from the non-echolocating genera Collocalia and Hydrochous practically nothing is required about Schoutedenapus. But recently, the pygmy swiftlet Collocalia troglodytes was discovered creating similar clicking noises in and external its cave. Characteristics of behavior, such(a) as what materials other than saliva the nests contain, can be used to differentiate between certain classification of Aerodramus.