Cliff Swallows

sacto-ucc.org by Bruce Swinehart No story of Spring would be complete without mention of the return of the swallows. This romanticized event is familiar to almost everyone. The swallow most often referred to is the cliff swallow, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota. This sparrow-sized bird has the characteristically pointed wings of the swallow but is the only swallow […]

[Purification and chemical study of a Collocalia glycoprotein]

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov [Article in French] Houdret N, Lhermitte M, Degand P, Roussel P. A glycoprotein was purified from the aqueous extract of “edible bird’s nest” (Collocalia) using free flow preparative electrophoresis and represented the main fraction of Collocalia glycoproteins. This glycoprotein is homogeneous upon agarose electrophoresis and slightly polydisperse upon ultracentrifugation (S So 20w = 3,0). […]

Sex differences in begging vocalizations of nestling barn swallows, Hirundo rustica


linkinghub.elsevier.com
Nicola Sainoa, f1, Paolo Galeottib, f2, Roberto Sacchib, f2, Giuseppe Boncoraglioa, Roberta Martinellia and Anders Pape Møllerc, f3
a Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Milano
b Dipartimento di Biologia Animale, Università degli Studi di Pavia
c Laboratoire de Parasitologie Evolutive, CNRS UMR 7103, Université Pierre et Marie Curie
Received 10 October 2002;  revised 25 November 2002;  accepted 20 March 2003. ; Available online 13 November 2003.

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Swallow Bird Cleanup

swallowbirdcleanup.net Abolish will professionally and humanely cleanup any Swallow mess. Whether it is an old nest, feces problem, or preventing the swallows from coming back! All products and services are environmentally safe, harmless to birds and blend in with structures. Discreet installations can be designed to be virtually undetectable from ground level and difficult access […]

Potentiation of mitogenic response by extracts of the swiftlet's (Collocalia) nest.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Ng MH, Chan KH, Kong YC. The edible bird’s nest extract from Collocalia spp. was found to contain a glycoprotein which could potentiate mitogenic response of human peripheral blood monocytes to stimulation with Concanavalin A or Phytohemagglutinin A. The potentiating effect of the extract was most marked at suboptimal mitogenic concentrations of these lectins, […]

Unusual pre-roosting behaviour of Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica during autumn migration


www.ornitologia.org
Òscar Gordo

The abnormal behaviour of a group of Barn Swallows roosting in a maize field is described in detail. Approximately 700 individuals forming a spherical flock performed spectacular manoeuvres over a maize field for several minutes.
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The Automatic Mechanical Recording of The Nesting Habits of Birds


By L. Gurr, Department of Zoology, University of Otago.

Nesting, because it is one of the most conspicuous aspects of bird behaviour, has received attention from the very earliest days of bird watching, and a good deal of literature is available on the subject. The information about nesting behaviour which is wanting, however, is of the type of observation that is continuous for twenty-four hours in the day. No individual would be capable of sustaining a watch of this type on any nest for any length of time, and accuracy on any sustained effort of this nature would suffer, due to fatigue on the part of the observer. R. E. Moreau(4) working on the nesting activities of the White Rumped Swift in Africa, came very near to a solution of the problem by employing relays of African observers to watch the nest and record the comings and goings of the birds. This type of observation is effective during daylight only, and thus has its limitations.
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4,8-anhydro-N-acetylneuraminic acid. Isolation from edible bird's nest and structure determination.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Pozsgay V, Jennings H, Kasper DL. A new, sialic-acid-derived compound was isolated from the acid hydrolysate of edible bird’s nest by ion-exchange chromatography. Combined use of mass spectroscopy and 1H- and 13C-NMR spectroscopy established that it is the 4,8-anhydro derivative of N-acetylneuraminic acid and that in solutions it exists in two tautomeric forms. The […]