Category: Articles

beezhouse.com
Was sitting at home on Saturday night, enjoying a repeat of Iron Chef. Theme ingredient: Swallow’s Nest. I hear you ask WHAT? Which is exactly what I did. Very quickly worked out it was a delicacy in Chinese cooking, and by god… EXPENSIVE. Only to be served when the Emperer shows up. (In case you’re wondering, if the friends pop over, then you should serve sea cucumbers. Who knew?). Now, the chefs did their thing with US$24,000 worth of Swallow’s Nest. Broke the budget for the show apparently. We got to the end of the show somewhat intrigued. What is Swallow’s Nest?
Read more about The Delicacy That Is Swallow’s Nest …

The Associated Press –
By JON GAMBRELL – , LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — It’s an Arkansas bird story that at first might be hard to swallow. A pair of conjoined barn swallows, attached at the hip by skin and possibly muscle tissue, will be sent to the Smithsonian Institution for study and examination, Arkansas wildlife officials said Friday.
Read more about Conjoined barn swallows cause stir in Arkansas …

Pocono Record, PA –
John Serrao
Poconos Outdoors
August 12, 2014
This story is mostly about a bird, but it also concerns the birder who discovered it, resulting in the first historical record of this species nesting in the Poconos.

The bird was found completely by serendipity, yet if anyone is likely to make such an accidental discovery, it’s Rick Wiltraut, who has become famous throughout Pennsylvania’s birding community as the man who makes a habit of finding rare birds in unexpected places.
Read more about Birder makes remarkable discovery …

ecologyasia.com KUCHING: Sarawak has recorded a sharp increase in the population of wild swiftlets following the implementation of a sustainable management plan by the Forest Department for the harvesting of bird’s nest.  Researcher Dr Lim Chan Koon said the number of white-nest swiftlets in a cave in middle Baram, northern Sarawak, had shot up to […]

springerlink.com Donald R. Griffin1 and David Thompson1 (1)  The Rockefeller University, 10021 New York, New York, USA Received: 8 August 1981  Accepted: 7 December 1981   Summary  The ability of cave dwelling swiftlets (Collocalia spodiopygius) to detect small cylindrical obstacles by echolocation was tested in a 3×9 m flight chamber. Although there was great individual variability, 6.3 mm obstacles were avoided much more often in total […]

nature.com TOM HARRISSON Sarawak Museum, Kuching, Sarawak, Eastern Malaysia. As a result of work initiated at the Sarawak Museum, Medway described and analysed the echo-location system of the cave dwelling “edible-nest swifblet”, Collocalia maxima, of Borneo1. Other work on C. salangana, which makes a moss nest (in Borneo), is as yet unpublished2; however, the taxonomy and […]

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Thomassen HA, den Tex RJ, de Bakker MA, Povel GD.

Section of Evolutionary Morphology, Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Van der Klaauw Laboratory, The Netherlands. hthomassen@rulsfb.leidenuniv.nl
Read more about Phylogenetic relationships amongst swifts and swiftlets: a multi locus approach. …

.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Lee PL, Clayton DH, Griffiths R, Page RD. Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Swiftlets are small insectivorous birds, many of which nest in caves and are known to echolocate. Due to a lack of distinguishing morphological characters, the taxonomy of swiftlets is primarily based on the presence or absence of echolocating […]

nps.gov
One of the most significant bird species in North America uses Carlsbad Cavern as a summer nesting home. The cave swallow, a close relative of the cliff swallow, can be seen from early February to late October (sometimes even November) nesting just inside the entrance to Carlsbad Cavern. The swallows provide entertainment for visitors by chattering, swooping, and making spectacular dives into and around the mouth of the cave.
Read more about Cave Swallows …

aerodramus.com Burung Swiftlets terdapat di dalam empat jenis iaitu Aerodramus, Hydrochous, Schoutedenapus dan yang tinggal ialah spesis collocalia. Di Indonesia Swiftlets dikenali sebagai Walet. Spesis ini juga dikenali sebagai Collocalia. Spesis ini tinggal di kawasan pesisir Tropika. Collocalia mempunyai sayap yang kecil dan panjang untuk membolehkan ia terbang dengan pantas, dan mempunyai paruh yang kecil […]