Recording a nesting pair of Common Swifts Apus apus over a period of seven years

Report on

Balatsky, Nikolay Nikolayevich (2003): Recording a nesting pair of Common Swifts Apus apus over a period of seven years (Russian). The Russian Journal of Ornithology Express-issue 236: 1040-1042

(APUSlist No. 2936)

by IGOR FEFELOV

A pair of Common or Black Swifts nested from 1984 to 1990 in a nest box sited on the 3rd floor of a 9 floor house in Novosibirsk. Further observation was terminated because the author's family moved to another house. One bird (the author presumes that it was a female) was ringed in 1984 and controlled in the following years. Its mate was assumed to remain the same bird throughout the entire period. It was first ringed in 1985, but by 1986/1987 it had lost the ring. The author assumes that the returning bird without any ring was the same individual as had bred the previous year. The author thinks the ring was lost, because it was too weak for the Swift's tarsus (leg), which is thicker than in other birds. It was ringed again in 1987 and observed up to 1989. In 1990 it was not seen. A total of 19 eggs was laid by this, presumed constant, pair of Swifts over this period, and from these eggs 17 young Swifts fledged successfully.

ISSN 1438-2261