July 26, 2021: A Closer Look at Chimney Swifts
Many birds are flying over the Lagoon. Maybe you have seen the Cedar Waxwings and Tree Swallows. But one of the more interesting birds is the Chimney Swift. They can be easily identified by their silhouette in flight. Very dark with a cigar-shaped appearance, this bird spends almost its entire life airborne. When it lands, it can’t perch—it simply clings to vertical walls.
Chimney Swifts now nest primarily in chimneys and other manmade sites with vertical surfaces and low light (including air vents, old wells, abandoned cisterns, outhouses, boathouses, garages, silos, barns, lighthouses, and firewood sheds).
At the end of summer, they gather into large groups to migrate to South America. They spend the winter in the upper Amazon basin of Peru, Ecuador, Chile, and Brazil, where they are found in open terrain and on roosts in chimneys, churches, and caves.
Happy Birding!