Nesting Swallow in a Museum

Nesting Swallow in a Museum

Swallows build mud nests, often attaching them to buildings or structures. Both male and female swallows collect mud and other materials, often mixed with grass stems, to build the nest which is semicircular or full cup in shape.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Museum of Natural History, UPLB, Laguna. Photo taken by the author.

It's alive, this elusive bird called swallow or swift, 

     Golondrina in Mexican folklore;

I thought it was just one of the stuffed specimens; 

     but here a nest she sits on and nothing more.

 

What message does this bird convey, why of all places 

     the museum? Did it come from a foreign shore? 

I wonder if she has kin from where she came, and where; 

     and here a nest she sits on and nothing more. ~

*The common swallow (Hirundo rustica) belongs to the swallow family Hirundinidae with other passerine species. Swifts on the other hand, though superficially similar to swallows, are not closely related. Swifts are placed in the order Apodiformes along with hummingbirds.