Thoughts unlimited

Swiftlet
Image source: Wikipedia

A few days ago, I went near the river Damodar in Kundrukalan Panchayat of Ramgarh district, Jharkhand. It is the rainy season now, and I saw the river water flowing rapidly over the bedrock. 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 was a 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?

Swiftlets Nest-Cluster under the bridge
over the 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 quarters. We regularly saw men collecting palm toddy from the top of the tree. But once 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 down the leaves and getting trapped in the net. Few would escape. He would then come down with the birds and nest, and go to the market to sell them.

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 I could not see such nest clusters. The closest I could come was the details of a bird, either a Swift or a 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 contact with air. In China, the soup of this bird's nest is a delicacy. Nowhere did they mention 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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