On Fri, Dec 24, 2004 at 08:56:33AM +1100,
wrote:
> Colin wrote "To think these birds may not land for 9 months of the
> year? Is this realistic? Wow!"
> As no-one appears to have replied publicly. Swifts do land in order to
> sleep at night.
I was hoping Mike Tarburton might answer.
There is a July 2004 paper by Jan Holmgren in Ibis, "Roosting in tree
foliage by Common Swifts Apus apus" with observations of mainly young
Common Swifts roosting in trees. Common Swifts apparently rely much
more on aerial roosting than on trees in Europe but what happens in their
non-breeding grounds in Africa isn't really known so some Common Swifts
may or may not spend 9+ months on the wing.
Obervations of aerial roosting in other species are apparently much more
scarce. Two are mentioned for Fork-tailed Swift including a familiar
name [1].
No observations of aerial roosting are mentioned for White-throated
Needletail but several of roosting in trees including another
birding-aus contributor [2] and Mike Tarburton's radio tracking [3]
Andrew
[1] Carter, M.J. 1969. Dusk ascent of Fork-tailed Swifts. Bird Watcher
3: 168171".
[2] Quested, T. 1980. Spine-tailed Swift perching on tree. Aust.
Birds 15: 52
[3] Tarburton, M.K. 1993. Radiotracking a White-throated Needletail to
roost. Emu 93: 121124
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