Tailorbirds and Swifts
Why Taylor Swift has the best name ever!
I am a huge fan of Taylor Swift. But one of my favourite things about her is not her range of music or sheer genius in her lyrics, but her beautiful name! Taylor Swift has two species of birds in her name - the Swift, of course, but also the Tailorbird! I am beyond jealous.
Today, let’s learn more about these two bird groups, just for fun.
Tailorbirds
Tailorbirds are wonderful, tiny little guys that are mostly found in Asia. In terms of colour, they’re nothing to shout about - they are mostly a dull brown or olive green, with grey upper parts and yellow white or grey under parts. They often have splashes of chestnut (aka a fancy word for brown) on the head. Their plain colours, coupled with their small sizes (about the size of your thumb) means they can be easy to miss when you are out birdwatching.
But that’s a good thing for this bird, of course! They are most comfortable across open farmland, scrub, forest edges and gardens, where they blend right in with the browns and greens of nature.
While they may look plain, Tailorbirds have an amazing ability that endear them to the birdwatching community - their ability to construct their nests! In fact, Tailorbirds get their name from the way they tailor-make their nests.
They find a single, large lead, pierce the edge, and then sew the edges together with plant fibre or spider silk. This creates a small, cosy little cradle in which the actual nest is built.
There’s actually another amazing bird that builds their nest in a somewhat similar way, by weaving a structure together using plant fibre as building material. They’re called the Weaverbirds, and will be covered in an upcoming blog post. The difference is that Tailorbird use one big leaf to form the majority of their nest structure, whereas Weaverbirds use many little leaf fibres and ‘braid’ or weave them together.
During the mating season, the male Tailorbird has long central tail feathers that differentiate them from the females. But when they’re not looking to impress the gals during mating season, the two genders look similar.
Swifts
There are actually 113 species of swifts in the world, which is doubly crazy to me because Taylor Swift loves the number 13.
Some of them include the Common Swift, the White-fronted Swift, the Glossy Swiftlet, Bare-legged Swiftlet and more. All of these names remind me somewhat of Taylor Swift, because I do see her as a white woman with glossy hair and long, bare legs?
Anyway, as a whole, the birds of the Swift species are medium-sized aerial birds and superb flyers. Some of you may already know this, but Swifts are famous for their non-stop flight: they sleep, eat, bathe, and even mate while flying! Some individuals do not land at all for over three months!
The record holder is the Alpine Swift, which has been recorded spending seven months in the air without landing - these birds feed on small insects and even drink and sleep while flying. In fact, they are so adapted to live in their element, and are designed to fly with maximised efficiency, that they don’t actually ever need to land.
They just do so because land is where nests must be built and eggs must be laid and hatched. Otherwise they spend their entire amazing lives gliding, sleeping, eating, writing chart-toppers and belting out number one music hits in the air.
When they have reached a high altitude and start gliding, they are actually able to sleep for short periods. This works because Alpine Swifts can sleep with either one half of their brains active, or with both hemispheres shut down at the same time. Remarkably, these birds can retain their navigational ability while in REM sleep. In other words, they can literally fly with their eyes closed.
You’ve heard of sleep-walking, and today you learnt about sleep-flying!
Hilariously, Taylor Swift herself is someone who also spends a lot of time in the air, apparently. In 2022 it turns out Taylor Swift is the world’s most prolific private jet user - taking hundreds of trips this year alone! Swift’s jet flew 170 times between Jan. 1 and July 19 (the window for a particular Yard study), totaling 22,923 minutes, or 15.9 days, in the air. That output has created estimated total flight emissions of 8,293.54 tonnes of carbon, which Yard says is 1,184.8 times more than the average person’s total annual emissions.
Back to birds, though, Swifts have a higher survival rate compared to many other birds. Some researchers believe this is due to swifts spending such a large part of their lives in the air, where predators cannot surprise them in the same way as on the ground or in a nest.
Also, when airborne they are not affected by parasites in the same way as on the ground.
I guess it would be best for Taylor Swift to remain airborne and avoid the parasites, pests and snakes!
That’s all for today. Catch you on my next article!