Why You Should Know The Bird's Flying Path !!!

Not many people take any notice on the swiftlet's flying path.

Some never even bothered to check where they came from and which direction they are going during the trip back to their roosting place.

Swiftlet do not make their home on trees, below those bridges, along the 5 foot way of those shop houses or in any open areas where the light are too bright.

The usually make their home in suitable buildings that are safe, dark, humid and conducive. Something that replicate a dark cave.

As such when they flew home every evening they usually rush back to a very selective building(s) that meets the above criteria.

The moment they have selected the house and build their first nest, they will stay at the same location until they die or perhaps safe to continue breeding.

The flight path they usually takes day in and day out will be almost the same.

If you can spend some of your time looking at the sky, especially near your BH, you will realised that they do have some flying back patterns.

Some of those things that you will see are:

1) The first batch, from 4:30pm till 6:00pm will fly high up in the sky, about 150 feet or so.

2) Once the clock hit 5:30 till about 7.00pm they tends to fly much lower, may be about 50 feet about your head.

3) The last batch flying home from 7.00 till total darkness will be very closed to the ground about 10 to 20 feet above your head.

Why they behave such things is difficult to say but I believed it has something to do with the food (insect) in the air.

At 4;30 till 6:00pm there all lots of insects high up in the air. When times goes nearer to darkness there are more insects at the lower height.

What if there is a reservoirs, lakes or rivers or ponds around your BH?

This is something that you need to be very careful about.

Once these water sources are within a certain distance from your BH, you definition of the correct flying path might be wrong.

The flying path is no longer the usual direction but more from the water sources to your BH.

I was with a BH owner a few week back in Kemaman, Trengganu. He claimed that he have been having difficulties in populating his BH for almost 4 years. However when the entrance hole of his BH was relocated facing the Kemaman river, his luck changed for the better.

From only 40 nests after 4 years he now have 400 nest in less then 6 months.

Yes what he did was to change the direction of his entrance hole towards the river9water source).

If you have a similar demography and having difficulties to populate your BH, try the above method.

Best of luck to you all.........