The life, Plight and City of a Blue King: Barn Swallow (Hirundu rustica)

Barbara Geiger; an actress who has interest in biodiversity conservation, uses her acting prowess in describing organisms, their life, their plights and the need for their conservation. She used simple and carefully selected words in a poetic display, communicating science in a non-scientific way. She was able to reach numerous people that knew little or nothing about science and yet spurred them in to action toward conserving biodiversity.

In A.P. Leventist Ornithological Research institute, Jos, Plateau state, nigeria where she was a guest presenter, her play was on Barn swallow. The bird whose scientific name she pronounced with passion and emphasis during her play that was supported by power point pictures only, is the most widespread species of swallows in the world.  It morphologically has blue upper parts, a rufous colour around its throat and underparts and a forked tail with curved pointed wings.

Barn swallows historically originated from Africa, but migrated up North to America and other parts of Europe, just as is the case in the evolution of man. They use geo-magnetic field with the help of an inbuilt geo-locators. They have sensors which help in detecting the earth’s magnetic fields, hence they migrate from Africa to America and back to Africa without much location problems.  The birds can hear infra-sound just as they can see ultra-lights that makes their vision more magnificent.Some of the birds during their migration, use land marks like valleys, Rivers etc to trace their routes.

Barn swallows are monogamous throughout their life, but extra pair copulation is not lacked among them. Pairs migrate separately, and wait for each other’s return. Mostly, the males clean old nests, and the female join him in building the nest with clay. They feed the young ones together instinctively.

These birds which migrate from the South to the North, return to the South (Africa) mostly in two directions. Some follow western route and pass through West Africa. they try to avoid moving deeply in to sahara desert. Others, use the Eastern route and move down to South Africa. Some millions of them spread in South Africa, but in West Africa, a place called, ‘’the swallow’s city,’’ was named after them. The city is found in Ebakkan (Boje) in Cross River state of Nigeria. Myriads of them return to Africa and settled in that place. At dusk, they return to the city with tall elephant grasses, shrubs and few trees, and they roost on the grasses. At dawn, they all fly to different directions in search of food.

Barn swallows have ecological problems; they are caught in places like Egypt and some parts of Africa for food. Conservationists like Barbara, were able to convince many people to abandon eating the birds. Wind also can blow them off their coast during migration, and some end up dying in the desert with other  different birds. They are bio-indicators of chemical contamination; they are quick to die when they ingest insects that contain insecticides. Hence, joining hands to conserve the birds, is the best thing people need to do; Hirundu rustica, deserves to live among us or around us.