Swallows, Martins & Swifts

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About Swallows, Martins & Swifts

Objectives of the group - To present an interesting and varied collection of high quality images of birds belonging to the relevant family as defined below.

This group is for Swallows, Martins and Swifts, they belong to the Families - Hirundinidae, Apodidae and Hemiprocnidae.

Posting multiple images of the same subject is known as photo dumping - don't do it. The photos will be deleted and the member removed. The group is not an extension of your photostream. Think of the group as an exhibition space – carefully consider your set of similar images and post the best one.

Please note : Woodswallows do not belong here, they are family Artamidae and belong with Butcherbirds, Magpies and Currawongs, see - www.flickr.com/groups/crows_ravens_magpies/

The Swallows and Martins are a group of passerine birds in the family Hirundinidae which are characterised by their adaptation to aerial feeding. Swallow is used colloquially in Europe as a synonym for the Barn Swallow.

This family comprises two subfamilies: Pseudochelidoninae (the river martins of the genus Pseudochelidon) and Hirundininae (all other swallows and martins). Within the Hirundininae, the name "martin" tends to be used for the squarer-tailed species, and the name "swallow" for the more fork-tailed species; however, there is no scientific distinction between these two groups. The family contains around 83 species in 19 genera.

The swallows have a cosmopolitan distribution across the world and breed on all the continents except Antarctica. It is believed that this family originated in Africa as hole-nesters; Africa still has the greatest diversity of species. They also occur on a number of oceanic islands. A number of European and North American species are long-distance migrants; by contrast, the West and South African swallows are non-migratory. A few species of swallow and martin are threatened with extinction by human activities, although other species have benefited from human changes to the environment and live around humans. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swallows

The swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds. They are superficially similar to swallows, but are actually not closely related to passerine species at all; swifts are in the separate order Apodiformes, which they share with hummingbirds. The treeswifts are closely related to the true swifts, but form a separate family, the Hemiprocnidae.

The resemblances between swifts and swallows are due to convergent evolution, reflecting similar life styles based on catching insects in flight.

The family scientific name comes from the Ancient Greek απους, apous, meaning "without feet", since swifts have very short legs and never settle voluntarily on the ground, clinging instead to vertical surfaces. The tradition of depicting swifts without feet continued into the Middle Ages, as seen in the heraldic martlet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swifts

Three species of Swiftlet, genus Aerodramus, migrate from Asia to north-eastern Australia, they are the Uniform, the White-rumped and the Glossy. These birds nest in caves in northern Queensland and use echo location to navigate in the dark. www.ozanimals.com/Bird/Uniform-Swiftlet/Aerodramus/vaniko...

The Australian White-throated Needletail, Hirundapus caudacutus; and the Fork-tailed Swift or Pacific swift, Apus pacificus, breed in Asia from Japan to Siberia and may winter as far south as Tasmania. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Swift

The House Swift, Apis affinis, is almost centainly a more regular visitor to northern Australia then the single sepcimen and six confirmed sightings suggest. Simpson & Day 7th ed. and - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Swift