Swifts and Us: The Life of the Bird that Sleeps in the Sky

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Early study of Swifts based on a colony nesting in the tower of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. There are approximately 100 species in the Apodidae family worldwide. These are swifts, swiftlets, spinetails and needletails.

Swifts and Us by Sarah Gibson | Waterstones Swifts and Us by Sarah Gibson | Waterstones

Dunne, Pete (2006). Pete Dunne's essential field guide companion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. ISBN 978-0-618-23648-0. OCLC 61169710. What is even more amazing than what we learn about swifts is how little we know about them, still. Until 1943, when hunters in a Peruvian rainforest flushed out 13 ringed birds from a hollow tree, observers north and south of the equator had no idea where swifts went for half of the year, and we’re still not much the wiser. The birds’ scientific name, Apus apus, comes from a Greek root word meaning “footless” because of an ancient belief that they never landed; in the 17th century, British swift watchers thought they flew to the moon in winter. Now, thanks to a recent Swedish study, we know that in the non-breeding season, many birds spend 99% of their time flying, eating and sleeping on the wing, and some never land at all. Swift for Beginners by Boisy G. Pitre accommodates the evolving features of this rapidly adopted language. The book guides you to write Swift code, using Playgrounds to instantly see the results of your work. It gives you a solid grounding in key Swift language concepts including variables, constants, types, arrays, and dictionaries. Swifts: A Guide to the Swift and Treeswifts of the World Phil Chantler Illustrations: Gerald Driessens A step-by-step approach has been employed in every chapter for ease of understanding. The book discusses the concept of data types, variables, constants, loops, decision making, functions, operators, object-oriented programming features, etc. The contents covered in the book are:Thankfully, there are people in the UK and across Europe striving to ensure a future for swifts. Their actions and stories are woven into the narrative, demonstrating how change is brought about by passionate, determined individuals, whose actions show that everyone can do something to keep these superb birds screaming through our skies. The Apodiformes diversified during the Eocene, at the end of which the extant families were present; fossil genera are known from all over temperate Europe, between today's Denmark and France, such as the primitive swift-like Scaniacypselus [5] (Early–Middle Eocene) and the more modern Procypseloides (Late Eocene/Early Oligocene – Early Miocene). A prehistoric genus sometimes assigned to the swifts, Primapus (Early Eocene of England), might also be a more distant ancestor. The Common Swift is an aerial specialist rarely coming to the ground. This means they have been little studied. This book relates the author's time spent studying these special birds between 2006-2011 at a nesting colony where he had unique access. The author has tried to convey information about swifts in a more personal and interesting style than is the case in scientific texts." Boersma, P Dee (1982). "Why some birds take so long to hatch". The American Naturalist. 120 (6): 733–750. doi: 10.1086/284027. JSTOR 2461170. S2CID 83600491.

Swifts by Beth Lincoln | Waterstones The Swifts by Beth Lincoln | Waterstones

Many swifts spend 99% of their time flying, eating and sleeping on the wing, and some never land at all

Martins, Thais; Mead, Christopher J. (2003). "Swifts". In Perrins, Christopher (ed.). The Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Firefly Books. pp. 346–350. ISBN 1-55297-777-3. The taxonomy of the swifts is complicated, with genus and species boundaries widely disputed, especially amongst the swiftlets. Analysis of behavior and vocalizations is complicated by common parallel evolution, while analyses of different morphological traits and of various DNA sequences have yielded equivocal and partly contradictory results. [4]

Swifts and Us: The Life of the Bird that Sleeps in the Sky Swifts and Us: The Life of the Bird that Sleeps in the Sky

Appreciate the power of Swift as a programming language for the development of mobile applications.

Swifts live almost entirely in the air. They eat, drink, sleep, mate and gather their nesting materials on the wing, fly thousands of miles across the world, navigating their way around storms, never lighting on tree, cliff or ground, until they return home with the summer. Coursera: Coursera partnered with University of Toronto to offer the iOS App Development with Swift Specialization. It’s super beginner friendly, goes in-depth, and prepares you for a career in programming.•