It is popular that representatives of the family of birds widespread in the cities of Eurasia, due to too short paws with long wings, cannot rise into the air from the ground. We checked whether this is really so.

Here's what the certificate in the newspaper reports "Komsomolskaya Pravda": “If the haircut sits on the ground, he will never be able to fly up himself. In addition, he is absolutely helpless and can only try to scare away a cat, a dog or a crow with a hissing cry. The cut can be helped by just raising it at a higher palm. ”

Similar information can be read in "Arguments and facts", magazine "Chemistry and life", encyclopedias "Biology", reference book “Birds Europe " And on the portals "Nature.rf" And "Emergencies Info". In many cases, it is clarified that these birds also cannot walk on the ground, and a black haircut is taken as a sample for consideration, which can often be seen in the cities of Russia and Europe.

The fact that the haircuts are not very adapted to life on Earth was known for a long time. Scientific name Hirundo ApusIn 1758, the most common type of cutting given by Karl Linnei, translated, means “lean swallow”. “Swallow”-because these birds are very similar in appearance (they are often confused), but the ideas about “legless” are associated with short clawed paws, because of which, as it was believed, in a healthy state, there is practically not to meet on the surface of the earth.

However, the naturalists of the past turned a blind eye to another rational reason for the cut of Swift to walk on the ground. The fact is that he does not collect crawling insects, completely content with those representatives that he catches an open beak directly in the air. As for the need to relax, modern scientists Counted: Black cuts (the same Hirundo APUS, later renamed the APUS APUS, ordinary cuts) are capable of spending almost ten months in the sky without landing, which is a record indicator for birds. In other words, cuts simply do not need to spend at least any considerable time on Earth, especially when there are trees, houses and other objects at their disposal, for which you can conveniently cling to claws. And then this happens only during reproduction seasonWhen the bird needs to build a nest, lay eggs and take care of your chicks. However, most of the cuts reach reproductive age in three or four years, and before that the animal can completely devote itself to life in flight.

As for the ability to take off from the Earth, then, firstly, many authoritative resources are not so radical in its assessment. For example, Bird protection Union of Russia and projects "TASS Science" One voice claims that it is difficult for harshrows to do this because of long wings, without denying the very opportunity. Of course, the task may be insoluble for a very young chick or an adult with a broken wing, but then the same can be said about other species of birds. But on the British website Royal Society for Poultry Protection You can find a more obvious statement about cuts: "A healthy bird is quite capable of flying from a flat surface." Most of the cuts that we see on Earth are hungry cubs, according to another Section the same site.

Colleagues from the same agree with the British German association, specializing in black cuts. They believe that for guaranteed take -off, an adult healthy animal will need 2-3 m of a flat surface in front of him. Help Their long wings are pushed away from the earth. These at first glance clumsy movements at a young age allow birds to strengthen muscles for future flights and serve as an indicator of readiness to leave their native nest, and in adulthood they come in handy in case if the bird was on the ground for some reason.

Theory is theory, but what about practice? After all, if at least for the average black cut of take -off from the Earth is not a problem, then the video recordings of this process must be openly in the public domain. Indeed, on the network you can find a lot of evidence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyogho8b_vi

Thus, the idea of a haircut as a bird unable to climb into the air from the surface of the earth is incorrect at least about 100 million populations Black cuts.

Image on the cover: Wikipedia.