Black Swifts Nest behind Waterfalls

BirdNote^® 

Black Swifts Nest behind Waterfalls

Written by Bob Sundstrom
   
This is BirdNote!
    [Waterfall sounds]
    A waterfall roars in a box canyon deep in the Cascade Mountains. It is just after sunset on a July evening, and we are so close, the waterfall’s mist cools our faces. We are holding a vigil for a bird, a very special bird.
    A slender, dark shape arcs into view, just in front of the waterfall.
[Black Swift twittering]
 The bird’s long, narrow, black wings curve gently backward, like an archer’s bow. With a brisk, effortless flutter the bird disappears behind the waterfall.
[Black Swift twittering]
    The subject of our falls-side quest, the Black Swift, builds its nest in crevices behind waterfalls in the western mountains, from British Columbia to Mexico.
    Shaped like a swallow, yet even more aerodynamically tapered, the Black Swift has a foot-and-a-half wingspan that makes it North America’s largest swift. It’s among our most enigmatic, elusive birds, foraging on insects over long distances and returning to its secluded nest sites only at dusk. [Black Swift twittering and waterfall sounds]
    Only in recent years have observers begun to check systematically for Black Swifts at waterfalls in the Cascades, a mountain range named for its abundance of falls.
    Today’s BirdNote was written by Bob Sundstrom. Come to our website, BirdNote.org, to find out where you are most likely to see Black Swifts.
    I’m Frank Corrado.
                                                                            ###

Call of the Black Swift provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.  Recorded by R. Righter.
Producer:  John Kessler
Executive Producer:  Chris Peterson
© 2007 Tune In to Nature.org

ID# 072007BLSWKPLU

BLSW-01