The swallows are about to return but also house martins and swifts that will go in search of their old nests in our country
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himSwallows are the quintessential symbol of spring, and finally this season is upon us. However, when the first specimens return to our latitudes they are often faced with a problem: the loss of their nests.
Swallows are truly extraordinary birds, weighing about 20 grams but they can fly over 5000 km, overcoming seas and deserts without rest and fighting against storms and disturbances.
Swallows, house martins and swifts are very habitual migratory birds, they always return to the place they left the previous spring and even go in search of the same nest they used and know.
But these birds run a very great risk, often finding themselves returning to a "home" that no longer exists.
If in recent days we have raised our eyes to the sky, from our windows, perhaps we have already identified some sporadic groups of swallows. But the phenomenon will increase in the coming weeks when swallows, but also house martins and swifts, will arrive in our country in search of the usual, comfortable, safe place to spend the spring, nest and bring their puppies into the world.
These birds travel thousands of kilometers each year to return home, passing even dangerous places such as the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean. All to find the nest they know and where they were born and raised, which can be found on the roof of a cottage, under a cornice, on the facade of a building, etc.
Unfortunately, however, these species are in sharp decline. This is due to the fact that they find an increasingly hostile and changed environment: polluted air, intensive agriculture where polluting chemicals are used as well as, no less important, the loss of nesting sites especially in urban environments (more frequented by house martins and swifts, rather than by swallows).
Often people destroy the nests of these birds that are found near their homes as accused of "dirtying", or because it is necessary to renovate attics and facades of buildings. And this, remember the Lipu, also happens during the nesting period (this means certain death for the puppies of these species).
Consider these birds help us to keep the growth of the fly and mosquito population under control, in fact, they feed on insects which they hunt while in flight. According to some scientific studies, a pair of swallows can eat up to 6.000 insects per day in the breeding season. One more reason to protect them.
Among other things, we remind everyone that swallows, swifts and house martins are species protected by law no. 157/92 and various other European directives therefore it is strictly forbidden to destroy their nests. As regards the renovation of facades and buildings, there are specific regulations establishing the ways in which to treat the possible presence of nests to preserve protected species.
We too can help swallows during their nesting, through the construction of artificial nests that replace the original nest in case it fell, broke or was removed to carry out a building renovation. HERE how to do it.
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Source: Lipu Rende
Read also:
- Swallow's nests: in Cortona an ordinance prohibits their destruction. Fines are foreseen for those who transgress
- Swallow's nests are still destroyed because they get dirty, it's a crime!
- The swallows return from migration but find their nests blocked by nets
- Massacre of swallows, exhausted by the cold take refuge en masse in the houses. How to help them.
- The swallows are disappearing. What can we do?
