The bird of the wind

The bird of the wind, which for many ornithologists is the perfect bird for a series of reasons that we will see, is the first to migrate, before the swallows and the house martins, anticipating the end of summer. The common swift Apus apus will leave our villages after breeding, heading for the African steppes of the southern Sahel and the countries of central Africa, where it will spend the winter after travelling 7,000 km across deserts, mountain ranges and seas, thus following its annual biological cycle. This year has been very strange, as the swifts have left us earlier than expected. During the last week of July I was no longer able to observe these swift and extraordinary birds in mourning, with wings shaped like crossbows, devilishly aerodynamic, which, shaped by evolution, navigate with agility and skill through our skies like dolphins in the sea.

Their eyes are large, expressive, dark, framed in a cavity in the skull with a visor-like projection above them, which protects them from the sun, and with eyelashes that stop particles that could damage their cornea during flight. Their beak is soft and ends in a downward-curving point, black. This is what gives them the appearance of a small bird of prey, along with their sharp nails. The beak opens widely so that their mouth cavity can collect all the insects suspended in the air, a real biological insecticide.

They have adapted to life in the air in such a way that they can spend up to a year without landing at any time. They eat, drink, sleep and copulate while flying continuously. Only when nesting do they need to land, which they always do at high altitudes, in holes in old walls and roofs, which the swifts will access at full speed. On the other hand, they will have serious problems getting back into the air if they accidentally fall to the ground.

The swift spends almost its entire life in the air: it can fly for months without ever landing (except during the breeding season) and flies steadily at 90 km/h, although it reaches top speeds of more than 100 km/h.

The swift is a protected species, which means that, just like its nests, chicks and eggs, it cannot be disturbed or attacked. Let us enjoy its crazy flights, without disturbing or killing them, so that they do not disappear from our skies.

The famous poet Antonio Machado seems to have liked to observe them, as he mentions them in some of his poems, such as in the evocation of the death of a friend, where he describes them tracing capricious circles around a nearby tower, before beginning their autumn farewell:

Los últimos vencejos revolean

en torno al campanario:

los niños gritan, saltan, se pelean.

En su rincón, Martín el solitario….

It is in their morphology and design that the incredible nature of these birds lies, which gives them their speed, their incredible ability to maneuver, their resistance to low temperatures at altitude. Their integrity and good condition is what ensures their survival. They depend entirely on their feathers to survive. And they only completely moult their flight feathers once a year. That makes breaking or bending a feather a serious problem for them.

With autumn just around the corner, I watch them one afternoon as they manoeuvre at high speed in a synchronised squadron through the streets and squares of the village, all the while emitting their peculiar high-pitched squeaks. I reach out my hand in the hope of brushing one of these dark windbirds with my fingertips, if only for a fleeting moment, before they depart for faraway worlds.

Allá en el campanario aldeano repica el carillón, volcando sus pulsaciones lejos, y una nube fantástica la aldea glorifica entre coronas negras de aviones y vencejos. Gabriel Miró.

Now, looking out the window, a thick fog invades me. I will have to wait for the long and sad winter to pass, impatiently awaiting the return of the bird of the wind, that dear friend who will once again fly across the sky with his silhouette and his voices on any spring evening.

 Es el hospicio, el viejo hospicio provinciano,

el caserón ruinoso de ennegrecidas tejas

en donde los vencejos anidan en verano

y graznan en las noches de invierno las cornejas. (A.Machado).

Playing you song:

Published by

mena

Leave a comment