The birds
 

Anyone else getting the birds like this ?

http://i579.photobucket.com/albums/s...dyassa/002.jpg

Re: The birds
 

Have they got white breasts ? I can't quite see clearly from the photo.
If by chance they have , we had a flock of them or something very similar darting around our apartment block a few weeks ago.
They looked like part of the swift/swallow to me family feeding on insects while in flight .
Never seen them there before.
Chris

Re: The birds
 

They do have white breasts, i think they are swallows.
Every year they arrive and build clay nests in some of the apartment balcony roof corners, we tie polythene bags up to frighten them off.
They skim across the pool to collect the water to make the mud.
Around now they all seem to sit on the wires getting ready for the off, but I don`t know where they go from here, maybe somewhere cooler.

Re: The birds
 

We had quite a few sitting on our window ledges , I'm no Bill Oddie but I didn't think they roosted like that I thought they were always on the wing ?
They weren't building nest though or not while we was there.
I'm sure someone with greater knowledge will give us the full run down by the end of the day
I had more enjoyment watching them than England but that's not saying much
Chris

Re: The birds
 

Here we have Swallows and Martins - the Martins nest under the roof overhangs of many of the village houses. They are not always popular on account of their toilet habits but they are great fun to watch - great flyers.

The ones which don't roost are Swifts which are unrelated to Swallows and Martins - they are in fact closer to Hummingbirds. When they leave the nest they stay on the wing, without landing, for three years only then landing to breed.

Some interesting facts here

Re: The birds
 

We have them and they dive at our pool, skimming the surface water to have a drink!!!

Jo xxxx

Re: The birds
 

Yes we get them do this as well, love seeing them all sit on the telephone wire lol

Re: The birds
 

We've got swallows that swoop over the pool surface for a drink, wagtails that do the same to scoop up dead insects, bats that have a drink when the sun sets, and silly lizards who climb in and can't get out again. I rescue as many of those as I can and hate to find a drowned one in the morning.

I also rescue drowning hornets but you get no thanks from them, just a nasty sting.

Re: The birds
 

Thanks for the link, these must be Swallows then cos they land on the wires to have a chat. :thumbup:
When there is a noise they all fly round like loonies then land again.

Re: The birds
 

Yeah they are swallows, we have them. They flocking and are getting ready to go to Africa!

Re: The birds
 

They could be Swallows, Swifts, or House Martins. If one of these it could be any number of different sub speices.
http://www.iberianature.com/material...pine_swift.htm
The last posting.
http://www.orniteca.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=331
http://www.pajaricos.es/v/v1/vencejocomun.htm
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delichon_urbicum

Re: The birds
 

Difficult to tell from that photo, if they are swallows or martins.
Close up its not difficult,with the swallows having a longer fork tail and a speck of red under the chin.
Swallows are the most spectacular, flying so low they actually sweep the ground with their wing tips at times,even had them brush across my ear on a couple of occasions.
Martins are a little similar but tend to be more communal than swallows.
I've seen as many as thirty nests,all joined onto each other under one house eaves in Extremadura.
Swifts are very different,larger,darker with a distinctive crescent shape to their wings tending to stay slightly higher than the swallows.
Interesting shot of an alpine swift,shall keep an eye out for that one.

Re: The birds
 

I don't think they'll be Swifts - Swifts don't sit on wires.

Re: The birds
 

The spring and the summer is an impressive show of the Nature, at least in my city, where thousands and thousands of swallows (golondrinas), ariplanes (aviones) and swifts (vencejos), all of the same family, they make incredible flights and screaming, I suppose that hunting insects

For the description that you give, white (and I suppose that also black) and for the physical aspect of those birds (especially the tail) they are swallows or airplanes

Re: The birds
 

They are here in their thousands. Two of them made a nest on top of one of the light fittings in my studio and raised three chicks.

Re: The birds
 

Yep they look like golandrinas to me, the Bee Eaters will be here soon as well.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirundo_rustica

Re: The birds
 

They're already here, though not yet on their regular-as-clockwork east in the morning, home to the west in the evening, routes!

Swallows - afaik there is a mediterranean species too - we see them as well as the more common (to UK eyes) black/blue & white with red under chin. Med ones are more muddy brown, though without my book to hand that may of course be mediterranean martins. Swifts very different, as everyone has said.

Swallows swoop on our pool even when we're in it. Don't know who's more suprised when it happens, them or us!
Ref hornets & lizards, our lizards work well dealing with the hornets which attempt to fry themselves on the outside light when we're sitting out in the evening!

Re: The birds
 

Yep, no red on them,just black and white, clearer pic now taken later in the morning with the sun on them.
18 birds in this pic, so at a guess there must be around 200+ on the wires total. :eek:

http://i579.photobucket.com/albums/s...assa/002-1.jpg

Re: The birds
 

House Martins. They do tend to breed in bigger numbers or communes than swallows. No orangie red under the chin and no extended fork tail like the swallow.

Re: The birds
 

I believe that the swallow to which you refer is the golondrina Daurica (Hirundo daurica, Hirundo rustica, etc), in English swallow hirundo
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ywTgCOWCNzY/Sp...G_8514_web.jpg
Spain is very rich in ornithology, and part of its fauna (birds, mammals, reptiles, etc) it is only autochthonous of the Iberian peninsula

Re: The birds
 

Know of any books on the subject en inglés?

Re: The birds
 

I presume by autochthonous,you mean only native to one specific area in the World?
I used to spend some time up in the Teide National park in Tenerife, where apparently 25% of the plants were native only to Teide, 25% were native only to Tenerife, 25% were native only to the Canaries, leaving only 25% that could be found elsewhere outside the isles.

Re: The birds
 

maybe a website would be just as good?

Iberianature This is a great resource.

Re: The birds
 

V good site,Many Thanks.