სოფლის მერცხალი და ქალაქის მერცხალი: Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) and Common House Martin (Delichon urbicum)

If I could choose a bird of my childhood, barn swallow would be the one... It is the bird that reminds me of all the sweet summer days we've spent in the village with my grandparents. How I played in the yard of a neighbour's house and how I watched mother swallow bringing food to its little ones in the corner of a house, where they had the nest.
It continued year after year, again and again until I grew up and the house got almost completely abandoned. And the nest - unattended and destroyed...

How I would wake up at dawn and hear Barn Swallows whistling morning songs to the world; to all of us. But they sang to me, for they knew I loved them and they loved me back... They were not even afraid of me when I was staring at them from one meter distance. How easy it was for the mother swallow to fly in, sit on the corner of the nest, where microscopic, yellow like omelet beaks would appear, grab the worm from the mother's mouth and disappear again... I was trying to get a closer look at them by adjusting myself on the seat peeking up, but seeing nothing...

Barn Swallows are black on top with very distinct brown neck, white breast and a long, scissor-like tail. You can hear the morning song in the video below...

 

Common House Martins I med only once in my life and it was an astonishing experience. The group of blue-white, funny, fluffy and very shiny clean birds sitting in the middle of the almost dried mud hole, dipping their little beaks and collecting material for the nest. They were working in a big group, where two or three of them would fly in and out side-by-side... They are smaller than Barn Swallows and are also somehow different. Their lifestyle is also more wild; (at least) these House Martins (despite the name) were less social. Although very pretty!

House martin covered by a foreground yellow flower.

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