Swifts and Swallows

[Colarris]

Why do they travel as far as these Isles when there are plenty of European countries nearer to the African continent they come from?

[Jenny W]

Swallows and Swifts breed throughout Europe, but birds that spend the summer as far north as the UK are able to take advantage of longer daylight hours here, thus increasing feeding time - just one reason, others will come up with more/better ones!

[diggleken]

Brief thoughts - temperature for successful breeding, competition from other swifts etc in europe perhaps, availability of food supply and returning to birthsites are also factors, plus they like us best, we're such lovely people in the UK and Ireland.
They do spread out given these sort of factors to suitable sites, and thus return.
Anyone else got views?
Cheers
Ken

[diggleken]

Further thoughts - as Jenny said, they are of course all over europe anyway, but in addition, population density pushes them out as far as possible, to the UK and scandinavia. Lets face it they cant go much further!
Interestingly (a bit) is that the new atlas points out that swifts prefer higher buildings/nest sites to enable take off and so are mostly now near human habitation with larger buildings, whilst swallows tend to prefer lowland farmland and villages where there are good insect numbers and suitable nesting sites.
Neither is exclusive to each bird of course!
Include Martins in this too.
Ken

[Colarris]

Thanks all. I dont know why but I had this assumption that they breed in Africa and only came here to feed. Is there a reason they come to breed here and not in Africa?

[diggleken]

too hot in summer - move to 'temperate' climes in europe.
BTW, welcome to WAB!
Ken

[Colarris]

Ahh of course, and thanks for the welcome!

[Colarris]

Found out last year on Springwatch I think it was, that swifts even sleep on the wing and the only time they are not in the air is when they have a nest! pretty unbelievable really

[Rob_D]

Originally Posted by Colarris

Thanks all. I dont know why but I had this assumption that they breed in Africa and only came here to feed. Is there a reason they come to breed here and not in Africa?

There are quite a few swift species that stay in Africa to breed - eg African swift, white-rumped swift, Nyanza swift.

Common swifts are just exploiting an otherwise unoccupied (from a swift perspective) location like Britain which has plenty of food to raise their young. That way, they avoid competing with the other species during the breeding season when they need alot more food.

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by diggleken

too hot in summer - move to 'temperate' climes in europe.

Remember that Swifts and Swallows go south of the equator where the hottest time of year is while they are there - our winter!

Originally Posted by Rob_D

There are quite a few swift species that stay in Africa to breed - eg African swift, white-rumped swift, Nyanza swift.

Also lots of differnet swallow and martin species in Africa (and not the coconut carrying 'African Swallow' from Monty Python!).

As Rob says, they come here in our summer to exploit a seasonal food source and to avoid competition with other species when they are breeding.

Roy.