Chimney Swift nest

A friend recently let me photograph the nest of a Chimney Swift. He found it in a chimney this winter as he prepared to light the first fire of the season. Looking up into the chimney to make certain there was nothing in the way of smoke, he saw and removed the nest. It is built entirely of twigs that the swifts brake from tree branches as they fly by. Swifts don't land or perch to find food or nesting material. Except for nesting and roosting, they spend their lives in the air. They roost in the chimney or hollow tree (or, now, nesting towers built for them) by clinging to a necessary rough surface with the claws on their toes. The nest is very small, as you can see, but large enough to hold four or five young birds. In the first photo you can see a shiny material wrapped around twigs at upper left. This is swift saliva, used as glue to hold the nest together and to attach it to the chimney wall. The third photo shows a Chimney Swift nest with three eggs. The view is partially blocked by chimney hardware. Both nests with and without eggs came from the same chimney, two years apart.