Common swift
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The common swift is a medium-sized bird, superficially similar to the barn swallow or house martin but somewhat larger, though not stemming from those passerine species, being in the order Apodiformes
Common Swift 2025 07 18 02
Common Swift chicks
Eggs of Apus apus
Young bird, not yet able to fly
Martlet
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A martlet in English heraldry is a mythical bird without feet that never roosts from the moment of its drop-birth until its death fall; martlets are proposed to be constantly on the wing. This conditi
Common swift
…of buildings. Young birds were harvested for eating but there were rules about leaving at least one young in the nest. The heraldic bird known as the "martlet", which is represented without feet, may have been based on the swift, but is generally assumed to refer to the house martin; it was used for the arms…
Martlets on the heraldic shield of William de Valence, 1st Earl of Pembroke (d.1296), drawn from his tomb in Westminster Abbey. Champlevee enamel with diapering