The taxonomy of South-East Asian swiftlets (Apodidae, Collocaliini) has proved challenging because of their limited variation in size and plumage colouration. Of particular interest are ‘white-nest’ swiftlets, whose nests, built almost entirely of hardened secretions from paired
sublingual salivary glands, are valued in the edible birds’-nest trade. The natural breeding sites of white-nest swiftlets are caves or grottoes but, for over a century, there has been a progressive increase in numbers occupying man-made structures. Through most of South-East Asia
there is now a developed industry, utilising sophisticated practices to attract and retain white-nest swiftlets in purpose-made buildings,known as ‘house-farms’—a novel form of domestication. A review of the systematics of wild populations based on museum skins collected
in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, before the expansion of house-farms,
The taxonomy of South-East Asian swiftlets (Apodidae, Collocaliini) has proved challenging because of their limited variation in size and plumage colouration. Of particular interest are ‘white-nest’ swiftlets, whose nests, built almost entirely of hardened secretions from pairedsublingual salivary glands, are valued in the edible birds’-nest trade. The natural breeding sites of white-nest swiftlets are caves or grottoes but, for over a century, there has been a progressive increase in numbers occupying man-made structures. Through most of South-East Asiathere is now a developed industry, utilising sophisticated practices to attract and retain white-nest swiftlets in purpose-made buildings,known as ‘house-farms’—a novel form of domestication. A review of the systematics of wild populations based on museum skins collectedin late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, before the expansion of house-farms,
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