#white throated needletail

[birdstudies]

September 17, 2024 - White-throated Needletail, Needle-tailed Swift, or Spine-tailed Swift (Hirundapus caudacutus) Breeding in parts of Northeast Asia, these swifts winter in New Guinea and Australia and have a separate year-round population in the Himalayas, though some of these birds may winter in parts of Southeast Asia. Foraging from about 3 feet (1 meter) to over 5,900 feet (1800 meters) above the ground, they feed on flying insects, hunting in large flocks outside of the breeding season. They nest in cavities in trees or sometimes on cliffs. Both parents incubate the clutches of two to seven eggs.

[sugiichi]

Hirundapus caudacutus [ハリオアマツバメ,White-throated needletail]

大きくて、大迫力でした🎉

[demonic0angel]

Animal AU (click for clarity)

CW: blood and creepy stuff in the description

If I have to color Dani one more time, I’m going to riot 😭

Notes below: (very long and detailed)

+ Jazz is a melanistic gray wolf, Danny is an albino mule deer, Dan is a king cobra, Dani is a peregrine falcon. Some of these ideas are taken from my dp royal court ideas.

I associate Jazz with wolves and canines. She is very loyal and protective, which I think would be best associated with canines. I usually give her the largest animals possible (because of her height), and gray wolves are the largest of all wolves. She is melanistic due to the fact that I like her color palette of black and turquoise. It also gives her a special connection to Danny that I do on purpose where they are black and white.

Dan is associated with cold blooded animals in my mind, cold in demeanor, vicious, and slippery. He is a king cobra because king cobras are the largest of all venomous snakes. They are also not true cobras, which adds a nice connection to Dan as being the most different out of all of the halfas. Surprisingly, king cobras are rather friendly to humans, which might be because of how smart they are.

I associate Dani with fast and speedy animals, so I often give her the fastest animals I can find lmao. Peregrine falcons are the fastest birds in the world, due to their diving speeds. I like how Dani is considered a bird because she is very free-spirited and flighty in my mind. I love it because I think she’d be really independent and would love the sky. Peregrine falcons also mostly eat birds, just like how king cobras eat other snakes, so that’s pretty cool too.

Danny is both kingly and creepy, which describes deer very well. Mule deer are very common in the US, and you might recognize them due to the fact that the Great Prince of the Forest (in Bambi) is inspired by a mule deer. Deer are fascinating creatures because there have been many, many folklores and myths about them, but none can compare to the real facts. Deer are very heavily affected by diseases such as chronic wasting disease, which can cause very strange behaviors. They get up after death, they walk off after being shot at or run over, they kill themselves repeatedly, they eat other animals, and they walk on their hind legs. All in all, while deer are very majestic and beautiful, they are also very, very freaky. There is a sense of poetry in how they’re hunted, which also applies to Danny. I think deer describes him very well :)

+ Meanwhile, the Batkids are a wild assortment of animals. Dick is a white throated needletail, Jason is an argali sheep, Cass is a black footed cat, Tim is a red fox, Stephanie is a dingo, Duke is an African lion, and Damian is a domestic cat (specifically a tuxedo cat).

Dick was always meant to be a bird. However, I wanted him to be fast, but not a bird of prey (which are usually the top 5 fastest birds). So I chose a white throated needletail for him, who are believed to be the fastest (while flying straight). They’re very elusive and photos are rare :( they are, however, very round and cute, and they even have a patch of shiny blue feathers on their wings, as well as v-shaped white spots, similar to his Nightwing suit!

Jason is an argali sheep because I associate him with lambs and rams. Mostly because sheep and lambs are associated with God and religious sacrifices (*cough cough* Jason dying), as well as innocence, docility, and obedience. Jason, as Red Hood, defies the meaning and memories of his past life as Robin, so I like the idea of him being a “black sheep” and defying those expectations of him as well. Argali sheep are known to have beautiful horns, are a species of wild sheep that live in mountains, and are also the largest of wild sheep.

Cass is a black footed cat because I feel like she’s very feline in demeanor, and black footed cats are one of the best hunters in the animal kingdom, with an over 60% chance of having a successful kill. (I think African wild dogs are the highest with 75-85%. It’s hard in the animal kingdom.) I also think it’s very cute of her to be so small but so deadly.

Tim is a red fox because of his cleverness and smarts. Red foxes are common in America and are usually hunted because people thought that foxes killed their livestock and dug up corpses. Tim is either really loved or really hated, so I feel like a red fox both symbolizes his irl status and his intelligence in the comics.

Stephanie is a dingo for no particular reason. However, they are social creatures and loved due to the fact that they have a history with humans. They’re golden colored and Stephanie gave off the vibes of an Australian, I literally cannot explain myself.

Duke is a lion for the same reasons: none in particular. However, lions are noble and considered very powerful. In my drawing of him, he is still a young adult, so his mane isn’t fully grown yet :3 he is 100% a normal lion tho!

Damian is a domestic cat for a few reasons. He is meant to be cute while the others are considerably scarier. There would also be a sense of irony bc I imagine that Talia is a big cat like a tiger or panther. However, cats are known as good hunters for a reason, and they have good instincts and can be just as loyal as dogs. As such, I think that he would be a regular kitty :3 other choices included him being a leopard cub, but it would be more funny if he was so small while everyone else is so big.

+ Something something, the two people who have had their deaths impact them the most and are often considered their parents’ greatest failures are prey animals that are usually hunted for sport….

+ Other small relationships between animal forms: the assassins are small cat forms. Dan being an animal not from the Americas, which also symbolizes him being out of place in the timeline. The Phantom family are purposefully made very different but also connected, examples being: a predator, a prey, a flying animal, and a cold blooded animal, etc. The Batfam being more random/less connected than the Phantom family due to their different backgrounds/lack of blood relation.

+ Their animal forms are also hint at the couples that I like, which is most obvious with Jason and Jazz lmaoooo. However, it is also a little noticeable in Tim and Dani (bird and fox), and definitely a little more obvious in Dan and Dick (snake and bird; please refer to my first piece of work with them tee hee). Danny’s is vague because I’m a multi-shipper with him, so he’s prey while most of everyone else are predator animals 💀

+ There are a few ideas in this (not counting the Pet AU): 1) Danny, Jazz, Dan, and Dani become companions and helpers to the Batfam, able to transform when necessary but also like spending time in their animal forms. In exchange, the Batfam help them with whatever problems they have and also give them sanctuary, 2) A regular animal-characteristics AU where everyone (or most of everyone, if humans exist) are some sort of animal hybrid creatures in the regular modern world, 3) The same as idea 2 but more Warrior Cats-esque where they’re way more animalistic, form packs, and live in less urban settings.

+ Yes, in his more humanoid form, Dan would have his legs replaced with a snake’s tail. I can’t decide between Dick and Dani having wings attached to their backs, or them having wings that connect to their arms.

+ Extras: Sam is a thoroughbred horse, Tucker is an American alligator, Valerie is a wolverine, and Wes is a swan. Bruce is a giant golden crowned flying fox, Alfred is an emperor penguin, and Barbara is a pony (but tbh, I’m open to suggestions).

[herpsandbirds]

Any spine-tailed swifts in your pocket? Grade-school me was absolutely obsessed after reading trivia about their flight speed (which apparently is difficult to verify?)

Spine-tailed Swifts:

The birds have been reputed to have the fastest flapping flight of any bird, as around 170 kph/105 mph, but that has been disputed for some time, as scientific methods were not used to arrive at that number. The Common Swift has been accurately and scientifically measured at 166 kmh/103 mph, displacing them unfortunately.

Spine-tailed Swift aka White-throated Needletail (Hirundapus caudacutus), family Apodidae, order Apodiformes, Australia

Resident (year round) in the Himalyas

Breeding in East Asia

Wintering in Australia

photograph by JJ Harrison

photograph via: British Trust for Ornithology

photograph by 重融 黃

[outofangband]

Birds of Gondolin

Flora, fauna, geography and environment Masterlist

As always I included world building notes at the end so it’s not just a list of species

This will complete my list of birds of Nolofinwëan realms!

The Echoriath: Rufous-throated partridge, black winged kite, black woodpecker, wood grouse, white throated needletail, long created eagle (rare/migrarory), crested bunting, scarlet finch, griffon vulture, mountain hawk eagle, collared falconet, lesser kestrel, silver throated bushtit, alpine accentor, Tibetan snowcock

Tumladen: black grouse, corn crake, upland buzzard, stone curlew, kingbirds, gray, brown and woodchat shrikes, grasshopper warblers, yellowhammers, red footed falcons, long legged buzzard (during winter), steppe eagle, booted warbler, grey throated martin, barn swallow, western house martin, chukar (rare),

World building notes

Eagles of course are highly valued in Gondolin; both the great eagles and many “regular” species of eagles live in the Crissaegrim, the mountains were Thorondor had his eyries. Their images are frequent in mosaics, sculptures and architectural motifs. Steppe eagles, a relative of golden eagles, adorn columns in the great market.

Bird houses and roosts are common within the city. Many of these are elaborate and elegant works of architecture. Grass woven roofs are common, with the grass being from Tumladen

I’ve always liked the idea of passenger pigeons in Gondolin too though these are likely brought by the elves rather than native to the region. 

In addition to the houses of the wing and swallow, many minor houses have birds as their heraldic device (on that note, the swallow depicted is likely a barn swallow)

Birds are not eaten in Gondolin by Turgon and most of his direct followers. This is done as a devotional act to Manwë and Ulmo however it is not legally forbidden and species of grouse and pheasants are sometimes eaten especially at informal feasts

Scarlet finches are beloved for their beautiful colors and appear through elaborate embroidery on several festival outfits.

The languages of Gondolin adapt words for certain species of birds that are not found outside the realm

Silver pheasants are kept as companion birds in Gondolin. The practice is based on Sindarin aviculture

I mentioned this here but Húrin has a tattoo of an eagle originally based on something he saw in Gondolin

[inkedinshadows]

When you're so deep into writing that you want to get as many details as possible right, so you open google to know how fast does the fastest bird in the world fly when not diving, and then you take two really far points on the map of Scotland to see how far they are from each other, only so you could calculate how long it would take Azriel to fly from Illyria to Velaris.

It's probably a bit more than two hours, which was also my first guess and I could have written that without doing all of this. I also mention it in literally one sentence and that's it, so I really didn't need it.

Anyway, if someone's interested: the fastest bird is the peregrine falcon with 200 mph when it dives. In level flight is allegedly the white-throated needletail with 105 mph, but since it's never been checked, the record is held by the common swift with 69.3 mph. And the distance between Fraserburgh and Glasgow is 178 miles.

[cilil]

I love how some bird species are named. Today's favorite is the "white-throated needletail"

[autistrix]

[https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195020540] White-Throated Needletail || Hirundapus caudacutus Observed in Australia Least Concern in location of observation

must consume pixel

[practically-an-x-man]

characters for the bird ask! Beth, Berrie, Hartley, and/or Jessie maybe? :)

Ooooh okay!

Beth is a white-throated needletail!

Berrie is a Eurasian hoopoe!

Hartley is a muscovy duck!

Jessie is a pileated woodpecker!

[sugiichi]

Hirundapus caudacutus [ハリオアマツバメ,White-throated needletail]

水面を翼で叩く時もあります👍

[daily-fun-animal-facts]

White Throated Needletail

The White-throated Needletail (Hirundapus caudacutus), also known as Needle-tailed Swift or Spine-tailed Swift, is a large swift. It is one of the fastest-flying birds in flapping flight, being capable of speeds up to 170 km/h (105 mph).

[saladban]

"Medium-sized swift, dark overall with a white throat. Almost always seen in fast, direct flight, which, as the name suggests, is swift. Bigger and longer-winged than swallows, with strong stiff wingbeats. Lacks the white rump patches of similarly-sized Pacific Swift (and other "fork-tailed swifts") and various needletails. Nests in cavities in cliffs and buildings. Ranges widely over any habitat in search of aerial insects, often over lakes and reservoirs where swallows congregate. Usually flies higher than swallows except when swooping low to drink by splashing briefly on water surface. Calls frequently, especially near the nest, giving a high-pitched wheezing scream."

-eBird

Conservation Status: LC

[2645/11080] Common swift - Apus apus

Order: Apodiformes (swifts and hummingbirds) Family: Apodidae (swifts)

Photo credit: Sylvain Reyt via Macaulay Library

[snailkites]

Inktober Day 1: Swift The record for fastest recorded horizontal speed in a bird belongs to the White-throated Needletail (Hirundapus caudacutus), a species of swift. We'll see how much time I have for Inktober this year! I completed this piece in about twenty minutes using extra ink and xuan paper from my Chinese calligraphy homework.

[animalssuperstore]

speed- 389 km/h(242 mph) species- Falco peregrinus family- Falconidae

[blueberryjamsart]

I was hoping to make a speedpaint with this drawing, but it just didn’t work out at all >:(

[redhawk0123]

ハリオアマツバメ Hirundapus caudacutus

2019.07.14 尾瀬国立公園