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| Swiftlet Image source: Wikipedia |
A few days ago I had gone near the river Damodar in Kundrukalan Panchayat of Ramgarh district, Jharkhand. It is rainy season now and I saw the river water flowing rapidly over the bedrocks. I was with my friend. We saw four men fishing near the river waters under the high-level bridge. We decided to go near them and enjoy the lovely scene. We sat on the rocks under the shadow of the bridge and felt the beauty of nature. We could see the underside of the bridge deck slab above us. An unusual habitat was there. What we thought as honeycomb was actually a colony of some creature made of perhaps clay. While we were wondering we saw some fast flying birds going in and coming out of it. So finally it was a cluster of nests. But what were these birds?
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| Swiftlets Nest-Cluster under the bridge over Damodar river, Ramgarh |
I remember the decade of the 80s when we lived at Gardanibagh, Patna. There were seven Toddy Palm trees in front of our quarter. We regularly saw men collecting palm toddy from the top of the tree. But once in a year, he would climb a palm tree with a big net which was not used for toddy collection. The time would be evening. After keeping himself safe with a rope tied around his back and the tree trunk, he used to spread the net around the hanging dry leaves of the palm. Now he would shake the leaves strongly. The numerous birds living under the leaves tried to flee by coming downwards the leaves and trapped in the net. Few would escape. He would then come down with the birds and nest and go to the market for selling them.
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| Swift/ Swiftlets nest cluster for the colony of birds |
I remember the escaping birds flew like these birds under the bridge. Being curious I searched on the internet but nowhere I could see such nest-clusters. The closest I could come was the details of a bird either Swift or Swiftlet. It said that these birds make nests on the high walls of the caves, tall trees or high buildings. It also said that they make nests with their saliva which solidifies in the contact with air. In China, the soup of this bird's nest is a delicacy. Nowhere they mentioned that they make nests with clay. So finally I believe that what we saw that day was a colony of Swift birds or Swiftlets and they made their nests with the threads of their saliva. Some of the nests in the cluster looked like a tube projecting outside. The opening in it was the entrance for the birds.
I am giving some pics of the nest clusters here. For videos visit my Instagram at this link - https://www.instagram.com/p/B1gt23lBxiQ/
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