Author: Swallow Bird Nest

ncbi.nlm.nih.go Brown CR, Brown MB. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Tulsa How colonial animals space their nests in relation to conspecifics may provide clues as to whether coloniality provides net benefits or occurs only because breeding sites are limited. We examined how nearest-neighbour distance varied in relation to settlement time in the highly colonial […]

.pnas.org DW Winkler and FH Sheldon Nest construction is more diverse in the Hirundinidae than in any other family of oscine birds. To explore the evolution of this diversity, we superimposed nest data on a DNA-hybridization phylogeny of 17 swallow species. Nest construction is tightly linked to the inferred evolutionary history. Burrowing appears to be […]

3000 m (high)
(9840 ft)

animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu

Barn swallows are very adaptable birds and can nest anywhere with open areas for foraging, a water source, and a sheltered ledge. They seek out open habitats of all types, including agricultural areas, and are commonly found in barns or other outbuildings. They will also build nests under bridges, the eaves of old houses, and boat docks, as well as in rock caves and even on slow-moving trains.

Physical Description
Barn swallows are small birds. They range in size from 14.6 to 19.9 cm long, with a wingspan of 31.8 to 34.3 cm. They weigh between 17 and 20 g. Barn swallows are metallic blue-black above and pale beige below. They have light brown on their throat and forehead, and have a long, deeply-forked tail. Males and females are similar in appearance, though females tend to be less vibrantly colored and have shorter outer tail-streamers.
Read more about Hirundo rustica(barn swallow) Habitat Elevation …

bioone.org
K. E. H. AitkenA, K. L. WiebeB, K. MartinA, C,
A. Department of Forest Sciences, University of British Columbia, 2424 Main Mall, Vancouver,British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada, B. Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan, 112 Science Place, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5E2, Canada, C. Canadian Wildlife Service, 5421 Robertson Road, RR1, Delta, British Columbia V4K 3N2, Canada
Abstract

Most obligate cavity-nesting birds are considered to be nest-site limited, either by time or energy to excavate or to acquire suitable holes for nesting. We examined rates of nest-cavity reuse for a rich community of cavity-nesting birds in mixed forests in interior British Columbia. Using a sample of 402 cavity-reuse cases over five years, we measured cavity reuse for 20 cavity-nesting bird and mammal species (three guilds), and examined the relationship between nest-cavity reuse and features of cavities, nest trees, and forest stands. Eight percent of used cavities were destroyed between years. Reuse rates were 17% for the cavities of weak excavators such as nuthatches and chickadees, 28% for formerly active woodpecker nests, and 48% for cavities previously used by secondary cavity nesting birds, but there was considerable species variation within all guilds. Nest cavities in aspen that were deep with large entrances had the highest reuse. At the forest stand level, cavities in trees close to edges and in sites with more edge habitat had greater reuse. Reused cavities tended to be occupied in sequential years rather than being inactive for a year. With increasing amounts of managed landscapes, availability of suitable cavities for forest nesting vertebrates is decreasing. Reuse of existing cavities might help mitigate the problem of nest-site limitation.
Read more about NEST-SITE REUSE PATTERNS FOR A CAVITY-NESTING BIRD COMMUNITY IN INTERIOR BRITISH COLUMBIA …

sabah.gov.my Laurentius N. Ambu Deputy Director Sabah Wildlife Department Kota Kinabalu ABSTRACT The two most economically-important swiflets are the so-called edible nest swiflets: the white-nest swiflets (Aerodramus fuciphagus) and the Black-nest swiflet (Aerodramus maximus). Both species occur in Sabah. With the dwindling edible-nest swiflets population due to effects of increased harvesting pressure and effects of […]

by Elizabeth Serai James
jphpk.gov.my
KUCHING – The new approach to the management of sustainable harvest of the Black-nest swiflets at Niah National Park has been a success after two years of implementation.

The chief technical adviser for Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA)/Support to Wildlife Master Plan Implementation (SWMPI) Project, Julian T Inglis, disclosed this in an interview with Tribune at his office yesterday.
Read more about Collection of bird's nests at Niah National Park …

Dietmar Gundacker, Sally P. Leys2, Heinz C. Schröder, Isabel M. Müller and Werner E.G. Müller1
Institut für Physiologische Chemie, Abteilung Angewandte Molekularbiologie, Universität, Duesbergweg 6, D-55099 Mainz, Germany, and 2Department of Biology, University of Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3N5, Canada

Among the sponges (Porifera), the oldest group of metazoans in phylogenetic terms, the Hexactinellida is considered to have diverged earliest from the two other sponge classes, the Demospongiae and Calcarea. The Hexactinellida are unusual among all Metazoa in possessing mostly syncytial rather than cellular tissues. Here we describe the purification of a cell adhesion molecule with a size of 34 kDa (in its native form; 24 kDa after deglycosylation) from the hexactinellid sponge Aphrocallistes vastus. This adhesion molecule was previously found to agglutinate preserved cells and membranes in a non–species-specific manner (Müller, W. E. G., Zahn, R. K, Conrad, J., Kurelec, B., and Uhlenbruck, G. [1984] Cell adhesion molecules in the haxactinellid Aphrocallistes vastus: species-unspecific aggregationfactor. Differentiation, 26, 30–35). The fact that the aggregation process required Ca2+ and was inhibited by bird’s nest glycoprotein and D-galactose but not by D-mannose or N-acetyl-D-galactosamine suggests that this cell adhesion molecule is a C-type lectin. To test this assumption, two highly similar C-type lectins were cloned from A.vastus. The deduced polypeptides of the two cDNA species isolated classified these molecules as C-type lectins. The calculated Mr of the 191 aa long sequences were 22,022 and 22,064, respectively. The C-type lectins showed highest similarity to C-type lectins (type-II membrane proteins) from higher metazoan phyla; these molecules are absent in non-Metazoa. The two sponge C-type lectins contain the conserved domains known from other C-type lectins (e.g., disulfide bonds, the amino acids known to be involved in Ca2+-binding, as well as the amino acids involved in the specificity of binding to D-galactose) and a hydrophobic N-terminal region. The N-terminal part of the purified C-type lectin was identical with the corresponding region of the deduced polypeptide from the cDNA. It is proposed that the A.vastus lectins might bind to the cell membrane by their hydrophobic segment and might interact with carbohydrate units on the surface of the other cells/syncytia.
Read more about Isolation and cloning of a C-type lectin from the hexactinellid sponge Aphrocallistes vastus: a putative aggregation factor …

web.uct.ac.za

J.A. Harrison
ADU, UCT, Rondebosch, 7701

While scanning old issues of Ostrich, I was struck by the photograph on the next page which shows a large colony of South African Cliff Swallow Hirundo spilodera nests on the walls of a building. I had never come across this type of nest site in this species before, and the fact that it was a man-made structure, but different to the culverts and bridges normally used, pricked my interest. The structure is an old mill building on the farm Wheatlands in the Graaff- Reinet district and it is reported to have been colonized continuously from 1896 to the year of writing, 1940 (Taylor 1942). Further investigation led me to an article by none other than Austin Roberts (1939), who gave the following account of cliff swallows nesting on buildings:

‘By far the commonest of the Swallows in the Union is the Cliff Swallow, which formerly nested in large communities under overhanging rocks or earth banks on rivers, but had found the eaves of buildings, bridges, railway water tanks and the like so much suited to it that it has increased enormously in numbers in recent years. In the early ‘nineties (That’s the 1890s! – Ed.) it nested in great numbers under the eaves of the ‘Gereformeerde’ church at Potchefstroom and also on some farm houses in the neighbourhood. More recently a great controversy raged in the local newspaper, owing to the local fire brigade having been used to turn the hoses on the nests to wash them away! The church community at Strydenburg, C.P., solved the problem of keeping away these Swallows from building under the eaves of the church and causing much trouble by the mess they made, by erecting fine wirenetting wherever they were likely to build their nests. Such favoured nesting sites are not confined to churches and large public buildings, but also private residences in towns in many cases – if they are tolerated.’
Read more about 12. Nest site choice in the South African Cliff Swallow …

sciencedaily.com Science Daily — ITHACA, N.Y. — Billing and cooing in an old and familiar love nest doubles and even triples some birds’ chances of producing progeny, researchers at Cornell University have discovered. Their study, which focused on Japanese quail, is the first to document what farmers and researchers have long suspected: that breeding is […]

sciencedaily.com Science Daily — ITHACA, N.Y. — Earlier springs with warmer temperatures over the past 30 years have prompted a ubiquitous North American bird species, tree swallows, to begin laying eggs, on average, a week or more earlier. But whether these harbingers of global warming are being adversely affected by changing weather patterns isn’t clear, […]