Swift
Model organism - Common Swift Apus apus
The Common Swift is a socially monogamous and sexually monomorphic bird species spending virtually its entire life on-wing. Only during the breeding season (May to July), this life in non-stop flight is regularly suspended for approximately three months. Swifts live exclusively on aerial food like flying insects and ballooning spiders. However, its availability varies due to rainfall, wind and temperature. Thus, both maintenance of own homoeostatic mechanisms and feeding of the young are strongly affected by weather conditions during the breeding season. Hence, swifts should adapt their life-history strategy to these to factors: i) time-limited breeding season and ii) food availability depending on weather conditions.
