Alpine swift

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Alpine swift
Alpine swift

Alpine swift

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Sailor birds (Apodiformes)
Family : Sailors (Apodidae)
Genre : Tachymarptis
Type : Alpine swift
Scientific name
Tachymarptis melba
( Linnaeus , 1758)

The alpine swift ( Tachymarptis melba , syn .: Apus melba ) is a species of bird from the family of the sailors (Apodidae). The species colonizes large parts of southern Europe, the northern limit of distribution runs through southwest Germany.

features

Alpine swifts are typical sailors with a streamlined, elongated trunk and sickle-shaped, long, pointed wings. The tail is clearly forked. With a body length of 20 to 23 cm, a wingspan of 51 to 58 cm and a weight of 76 to 125 g, the alpine sailor is by far the largest sailor in the western Palearctic . Males are on average slightly (approx. 2%) larger than females; the wing length of Swiss alpine swifts averaged 229.5 mm for males and 225.6 mm for females.

From all other sailors of the western Palearctic, the species differs, apart from the size, by the underside drawing. The throat and the entire front abdomen are pure white, interrupted by a sharply defined, dark chest band. The rest of the underside (and the entire top) is pale beige or gray-brown. The beak is black, the iris is brown-black. The feet are flesh-colored, the tips of the toes are dark brown and the claws are black.

Vocalizations

The call is a drawn out trill, which falls off a bit at the end ( call example ).

Distribution areas of the Alpine swift
(green = breeding areas, dark green = year-round occurrence, blue = wintering areas, violet = forays (uncertain seasonality), pale blue = probable migration areas)

distribution

The breeding area of ​​the Alpine swift stretches from North Africa and Southern Europe through southern Central Europe and Western Asia to Central Asia, India and Sri Lanka and also includes large parts of Africa south of the Sahara and Madagascar .

The northernmost breeding sites in Central Europe were in 1999 in Basel ( Switzerland ), Waldshut and Mulhouse ( France ) and in Baden-Württemberg in Freiburg and Emmendingen im Breisgau .

food

Like other species of the genus Apus, the food consists of “ aerial plankton ”, ie arthropods that fly high in the air or that have drifted there by the wind . Systematic studies on nutrition are apparently not yet available. 10 bales of fodder from different places in Switzerland contained 11 to 684, on average 276 prey animals. They contained a total of 1011 Schnabelkerfe (of which 668 aphids and 314 cicadas ), 692 dipteras , 301 hymenoptera , 207 beetles , 93 spiders , 19 netwings , 16 butterflies , 14 stoneflies, 14 grasshoppers and one caddis fly .

Reproduction

Alpine sailors in flight

Alpine swifts nest in colonies , only the immediate nest environment is defended against conspecifics. Natural colony sites are crevices and sheltered niches in steep rock faces , but also rock grottos and breakthroughs in mountains, in the Mediterranean area sometimes directly cliffs at sea level. For several centuries, perhaps since antiquity, the species has also used buildings as sleeping and breeding grounds. The buildings used are usually free or protrude significantly above the surrounding building fabric. The nests are usually located in cavities such as roof trusses, in roof boxes, behind wooden cladding or in nesting boxes. The entry takes place through at least 7 cm high gaps of any kind. The nests are often directly behind the entry hole, but also several meters away from it above or below the entry hole. Nests are rarely erected on the outside of buildings, e.g. B. behind dials of church clocks, on stucco decorations or cornices.

Nest building begins at least 4–5 weeks before the egg is laid. B. mid-April. The nest consists of plant, animal or artificial material (feathers or paper, plastic) collected in the air, which they stick together with saliva and combine to form a shell . The nest will usually be built on horizontal or inclined surfaces, rarely also glued in crevices on vertical walls.

Tachymarptis melba

Egg-laying is highly dependent on the weather and began in the colony in Solothurn, which has been studied for decades, on May 7th at the earliest in warm weather, and on June 5th in cold weather at the latest. The clutch usually comprises 1–3, rarely 4 eggs; these are pure white, oval, and in the Solothurn colony measured an average of 30.5 × 19.2 mm. Both parent animals breed alternately; the breeding season is 17-23, on average 20 days. In Switzerland, most young birds hatch in June to early July. The parents provide the young birds with food balls made from insects and spiders, which they choke out at the nest and feed the beaks of the young, who initially hiss softly, and later loudly “hissing”. The nestling period is 53–66 days, with an average of 57 days. With the excursion, young swifts are immediately independent, do not return to the nest and fly to their winter quarters before the adult birds.

Age

The maximum age of a Swiss alpine sailor, proven by ringing, is 26 years, other birds were 22 and 21 years old.

Alpine swift, portrait

hikes

European Alpine swifts are migratory birds and overwinter in tropical Africa. The exact winter quarters are unknown. Depending on the weather, Swiss breeding birds mostly leave the colonies at the beginning of September; the last observations in Solothurn were made between September 14th and October 31st. The last observations in all of Switzerland are made in November, exceptionally in early December.

The withdrawal from winter quarters is unknown, in northwest Morocco the homeward movement begins in early March, reaches its peak in early April and ends in mid-May. In Switzerland, the first birds usually arrive at the end of March or beginning of April, the main entry takes place around mid-April.

Existence and endangerment

In Central Europe, the species is particularly threatened by construction work on populated buildings. In Germany, the Alpine Swift is on the Red List as a rare species with a geographically limited occurrence in category "R"; the total population was estimated at 75–85 pairs around the year 2000. The species was removed from the Baden-Württemberg Red List, however, because the Freiburg colony has grown significantly in recent decades (over 130 breeding pairs in 2008) and new colonies have emerged in Emmendingen , Lörrach , Tuttlingen , Achern , Gundelfingen and elsewhere.

Between 1993 and 1996 there were between 1,160 and 1,300 breeding pairs in Switzerland; the largest colony with around 150 pairs is located in Freiburg im Üechtland . The species is classified as "potentially endangered" in Switzerland. According to the IUCN , the species is considered harmless worldwide .

Subspecies

Ten subspecies are known:

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ UN Glutz v. Blotzheim and KM Bauer: Handbook of the birds of Central Europe . Vol. 9, 2nd edition, AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1994. ISBN 3-89104-562-X : p. 715
  2. ↑ M. Schmidt: The alpine sailor (Tachymarptis melba) in Freiburg im Breisgau - dynamics of a population. Nature conservation south of Upper Rhine 3, 2000: 35-44.
  3. ↑ UN Glutz v. Blotzheim and KM Bauer: Handbook of the birds of Central Europe. Volume 9., 2nd edition, AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1994, ISBN 3-89104-562-X , p. 731.
  4. ↑ UN Glutz v. Blotzheim and KM Bauer: Handbook of the birds of Central Europe . Vol. 9., 2nd edition, AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1994. ISBN 3-89104-562-X : pp. 725-726
  5. ^ R. Winkler: Avifauna of Switzerland. The Ornithological Observer, Supplement 10, 1999: p. 129
  6. ^ IOC World Bird List Owlet-nightjars, treeswifts & swifts
  7. ^ Carl von Linné, p. 192.
  8. ↑ Victor Ritter von Tschusi zu Schmidhoffen, p. 123.
  9. ↑ a b Ernst Johann Otto Hartert (1928), p. 363.
  10. ^ William Robert Ogilvie-Grant, p. 56.
  11. ^ Coenraad Jacob Temminck, p. 270.
  12. ^ Rupert Dudley Bradfield, p. 131.
  13. ^ Ernst Johann Otto Hartert (1896), p. 231.
  14. ^ Walter Norman Koelz, p. 25.
  15. ^ Humayun Abdulali, p. 156.

literature

  • Lars Svensson , Peter J. Grant, Killian Mullarney, Dan Zetterström: The new cosmos bird guide. Kosmos, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-440-07720-9 .
  • Einhard Bezzel: Compendium of the birds of Central Europe. Nonpasseriformes - non-singing birds . Aula, Wiesbaden 1985, ISBN 3-89104-424-0 .
  • Carl von Linné: Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, Cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis . 10th edition. tape 1 . Imprensis Direct Laurentii Salvii, Stockholm 1758 ( online [accessed May 18, 2015]).
  • Coenraad Jacob Temminck: Manuel d'ornithologie, ou Tableau systematique des oiseaux qui se trouvent en Europe . 1st edition. JC Sepp & Fils, G. Dufour, Amsterdam, Paris 1815 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  • Ernst Johann Otto Hartert: A new form of swift from Madagascar . In: Novitates Zoologicae . tape 3 , 1896, p. 231 ( online [accessed April 18, 2015]).
  • Ernst Johann Otto Hartert: A rush through Tunisia, Algeria, and Marocco, and collecting in the Maroccan Atlas, in 1927 . In: Novitates Zoologicae . tape 34 , 1928, pp. 337–371 ( online [accessed April 18, 2015]).
  • William Robert Ogilvie-Grant: Mr. WR Ogilvie-Grant exhibited examples of a new species of Alpine Swift procured by the members of the Ruwenzori Expedition . In: Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club . tape 19 , no. 131 , 1907, pp. 231 ( online [accessed April 18, 2015]).
  • Victor Ritter von Tschusi zu Schmidhoffen : About Palaearctic forms. (VII.) . In: Ornithological Yearbook . tape 15 , no. 4 , 1904, pp. 121–124 ( online [PDF; 1000 kB ; accessed on April 18, 2015]).
  • Walter Norman Koelz: Contributions from the Institute for Regional Exploration . Ann Arbor, Michigan 1954.
  • Rupert Dudley Bradfield: Description of New Races of Kalahari Birds and Mammals, & c . Private print, Benoni 1935.
  • Humayun Abdulali: Notes on Indian Birds 3 - The Alpine Swift, Apus melba (Linnaeus), with a description of one new race . In: The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society . tape 62 , 1965, pp. 153-160 .

Web links

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