Did you know that, unlike swallows, swift chicks can endure long periods without food?
During the nesting season, swifts can spend the entire day flying, only returning to the nests to feed their chicks and rest overnight. These birds have very large feeding areas and can search for food more than 60 km away from their nesting sites.
On cold and rainy days, they may be trapped in these feeding areas, preventing them from feeding the chicks. In the nest, the chicks can lower their body temperature and become torpid until the weather improves and the adults return to the nesting sites with food.
In other birds, like swallows, due to their high metabolic rates, the parents must feed the chicks several times a day. In cases of food deprivation, unlike swifts, swallow chicks would eventually die.
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