THE WHITE-THROATED SWIFT
by
Walter L. Meagher
Photos by Wayne Colony
White-throated Swifts winter in El Charco, arriving in November, departing in April; some stay on, possibly breeding here. They are the swiftest of all swifts, darting, swooping and turning faster than the eye can register. In the evening, they come to roost in the cracks and crevices of El Charco’s canyon wall, a fortress made for them. Before bedtime, they play chase.
Bird follows bird forming a funnel of whirling swifts; once formed, individuals fly away, dissolving the funnel, soaring high into the sky. Will they come back? Is this, too, part of the game? Wait! While the sun sets in the western sky, and the city lights go on, the swifts return, restarting the chase, reforming the funnel that resembles a tornado. Then, as if enough play is enough, birds dart away from the multitude, leave the game, and enter crevices in the canyon wall. The birds have gone to bed.
Swifts, like swallows, have wide gapes suited to hoovering insects on the wing, catching flies, beetles, bees and wasps, even nesting materials - grass fragments, feathers and light pieces of paper. The swift’s legs are too short to walk; if a swift lands on the ground, it cannot stand, or fly away, and may die. Like no other bird, it is wedded to the sky.
Note: Adapted from Wild & Wonderful: Nature Up Close in the Botanical Garden ‘El Charco del Ingenio’ by Walter L. Meagher, photographs by Wayne Colony.
Observations on which this essay is based were made by Wayne and Susan Colony.