How birds behave Birds react very quickly to an increase or decrease in pressure. Therefore, they are better than any barometer at predicting whether the weather will be rainy or sunny in the coming days.

...Early in the morning, the ringing song of a lark is heard in the field. This feathered alarm clock predicts a fine day without rain. You may forget your umbrella at home if you see a lark walking on the ground in search of food. But be careful, if the ringing bird sits with a sullen ruff - it will soon rain.

Before a clear, fine day, pigeons coo in a special way. And if the nightingale’s trill did not stop all night, the weather will soon clear up. On a warm night, pheasants tend to climb onto tree branches. Before bad weather, they occupy lower places on the bushes.

The finch is also sensitive and can predict what the weather will be like in a day. Already anticipating how he will bask in the hot sun, the finch sings cheerfully. But as soon as even one thundercloud appears in the sky, the finch begins to wail sadly. He seems to be complaining about future bad weather, afraid that he will freeze. Maybe that’s why they called the sad bird a finch.

You can make sure whether rain or sun awaits us if you listen more carefully to the song of the oriole. If you enjoy listening to her song, wait for a warm, fine day. If it screams loudly, be prepared for rain.

If the loud knock of a woodpecker is heard kilometers ahead, you know that it will rain soon. Why is a bird so furious in the face of bad weather? Everything is very simple - before the rain, insects try to hide under the bark, and this is where the ubiquitous woodpecker beak finds them.

The longer the swifts fly, the cloudier and warmer the weather will be. Sensitive weather forecasters are able to travel hundreds of kilometers to escape rain and bad weather.

Traveling swifts are quite understandable. After all, they try to hunt as high as possible. And before the rain, all the midges and mosquitoes try to fly lower to the ground. Indeed, due to increased humidity, their wings become wet and heavy. They pull insects down.

Have you seen kites or eagles calmly soaring in the cloudless sky? You can rejoice - the good weather will continue for a few more days. But have your umbrellas ready if birds of prey are calling in alarm. With their cry they report approaching bad weather.

But we can only notice these birds in the summer. And what birds can we encounter almost every day all year round? Of course, with sparrows! So try to take a closer look at their behavior.

In clear and sunny weather, these are real hooligans, lively and lively. But if these livelies have become quiet or ruffled, as a result, you need to wait for rain or frost. Even in the most inclement weather, sparrows rejoice in the future sun - they chirp in unison and jump from branch to branch.

In winter, sparrows become silent for a short time before the snow. But if, even in the most severe frost, the birds shouted together, a thaw is just around the corner. Small birds feel the severe frost - they try to find shelter in various cracks, in chimney pipes. It will be frosty if you see in winter that sparrows are dragging various garbage, for example, chicken fluff.

Did you hear the displeased caw of a crow? It will rain soon. Before bad weather, the crow wheezes. But on warm days her voice becomes sonorous and loud. And the bird itself is transformed - as if the old woman is getting younger. The enraged bird begins to jump and fly.

During the frosty winter season, crows do not fly alone, otherwise they will not survive. Before a snowstorm, they rush around like people possessed, croaking terribly. Before the lowest temperatures, birds try to hide their heads under their wings.

In winter, did the crows sit far apart from each other? The wind will die down soon. Are they huddling together? The wind will be stronger, and from the direction where the discerning birds are looking. Otherwise, if the crows turn their backs to the wind, it will inflate all the birds' feathers and freeze the unfortunate animals.

Jackdaws are also able to anticipate rainy weather. They start screaming before it rains. And if the jackdaws are quiet and trying to hide, hide too. There will be a thunderstorm soon.

But in winter, jackdaws, on the contrary, start calling just before the thaw. And they also try to chase each other. And severe frost forces birds to sit on the very tops of trees. But if the jackdaws or crows have moved to lower branches, a strong wind will soon arise.

A rook will also make a good meteorologist. If the rooks are happily chasing each other, the weather will be clear. They gather in flocks high in the sky and quickly descend - expect rain. And in general, the restless behavior of rooks, their rushing from nest to nest, is a sign of a change in the weather.

Mood: Good!!!

Signs have a very rich history, but today many phenomena are explained scientifically. Therefore, fewer and fewer people believe in different beliefs. But in vain: some signs based on observations may be true. For example, modern science knows exactly why swallows fly low before rain. Biologists and physicists have found a logical basis for this phenomenon, so the sign can be considered true and accurate.

What does the sign say?

Before describing the reason for this phenomenon, it is worth considering in detail the sign that swallows fly low. Among some residents of Russia there is a very widespread belief as if these birds can communicate with the souls of dead people. It is believed that the birds receive news from the other world, and then descend to earth to convey them to the relatives of the dead.

Living people, in turn, are glad that they were able to talk once again with their loved ones, whom they miss very much. Having heard what a person did not have time to say during his lifetime, the soul of his relative bursts into tears of happiness, which is why it rains.

Among English-speaking peoples, the belief has a slightly different form. Their sign: swallows fly high - expect dry weather. Essentially, this is a different look at the same phenomenon explained by science. But as a rule, high-flying birds are more likely to be a sign of already established fine weather, rather than a meteorological harbinger.

Of course, each person decides for himself whether to believe in science or attribute miraculous powers to signs. The fact remains that the swallow belief is true.

Scientific explanation

This sign also has a logical explanation. It appeared thanks to knowledge of biology and physics:

This is why swallows often fly low before rain. Naturally, a person does not see insects, but he can watch fast-flying flocks of birds for quite a long time.

In Russia, these birds are very common and can be easily recognized by their characteristic forked tail. The three most common types are:

1. Voronok or urban. The plumage of this bird is black with a blue tint and a metallic sheen. The breast, neck and rump areas are white or cream colored. Their tail is somewhat shortened compared to the other two species. It is representatives of the funnel that settle in cities under the roofs of houses and on the eaves. They prefer sparsely populated cities, avoiding megacities.
2. Killer whale or village. This beauty is larger than the city representative. Its color also has a metallic tint, but it is closer to dark blue. The abdomen is light with a small dark stripe on the chest. The tail of this bird is long and pointed. Barn swallows usually settle in very large colonies, sometimes numbering up to 1000 pairs.
3. Beregovushka or coastal. It is these birds that can be seen in nest-caves made along steep banks. They have a brown-gray color, small size and a miniature tail.

Typically, swallows are distinguished by their love for their offspring and are famous for their hard work and dedication. If one of the chicks does not have time to get stronger before the flight, the parents stay with it. A swallow can bring food to its offspring up to 500 times a day. This is not surprising, because tiny birds have an excellent appetite; they can eat almost two tons of insects in their lives.

These birds live up to 30 years. Their strength lies in their extraordinary flight speed, reaching 120 km/h. In addition, they can rise to a height of 4 km. These harbingers of spring are known and loved all over the world, so the sign associated with the weather is familiar to almost everyone.

To believe or not to believe

Some people will be 100% confident in the sign and will begin to convince others that folk wisdom has never let them down. Others will laugh at them and say that this is not mysticism at all, but a completely reasonable phenomenon. To support this, they can cite many examples of incorrect weather forecasts based on birds flying high and low. Sometimes insects, and after them swallows, sink lower as a result of some environmental changes:

• sudden changes in temperature;
• change in atmospheric pressure;
• large difference between daytime and evening temperatures;
• increased humidity due to fog.

So why, given the obvious unreliability of signs about the weather, do people continue to trust them? It's all about the psychology of the person himself; very often people only see what they believe. Therefore, you should not completely trust such signs; it is better to focus on the weather forecast, and leave the role of additional predictions to superstitions. But you shouldn’t give up believing in magic, because the whole planet, its flora and fauna with weather and various phenomena- these are real miracles.

It's no secret that in ancient times people considered those phenomena or objects that they could not understand or explain themselves to be divine powers and endowed them with a human appearance. Later, when science appeared and many of the mystical actions of nature received a logical basis, most people stopped believing in magic. They learned to live in reality, to define their lives not with guesses and conjectures, but with facts.

But signs, like some kind of significant phenomenon that predicts the further development of a person’s fate, are still not forgotten. And more and more new generations listen to them.

Perhaps the reason for the existence of such signs is that they really help determine the future? But how exactly does this happen? For example, why do swallows fly low before it rains? After all, such behavior of these marvelous birds actually portends bad weather. How to explain this relationship? With the help of mysticism or physics?

Signs of the Russian people

So, the Russian people have a lot of signs warning of trouble, promising happiness and good luck, predicting the weather and many other important events. For example, if a man meets you first before a serious matter, it means you will be lucky. If a woman, on the contrary, one should fear failure.

However, the first man you meet with an empty bucket can also promise possible troubles. Because, according to another Russian superstition, it is through such a sign that fate warns that you need to carefully weigh all your words and actions.

Also, observant people, getting ready for work or walking down the street, will certainly notice (this can be done far from big cities) that swallows fly low before the rain.

Is it worth adjusting your life to the prediction of signs?

To believe or not to believe in such signs listed above, everyone decides for himself. After all, some people are sure that if you don’t bother yourself with all sorts of nonsense, then everything will go smoothly in your business.

However, even such people find it difficult to say anything against the sign that we are exploring in this article. Because it’s true that in some magical way she almost always pretends to be real. And indeed before the rain there is a low flight of swallows. Why is this happening? Maybe the secret really is magic?

The mystical meaning of the behavior of swallows before the rain

Of course, no one has the right to prohibit any person from believing in miracles. After all, the great scientist Albert Einstein said that you can live life in two ways: considering everything a miracle, or considering nothing as such.

Thus, a logical explanation can be given for most natural phenomena. But everyone must decide for themselves whether to accept it or continue to attribute magical, mystical properties to it.

That is why some residents of Russia can answer the question of why swallows fly low before the rain: there is a belief that swallows are birds that can communicate with the souls of dead people, they descend to earth to their relatives in order to convey what a person does not I was able to say during my lifetime. Having received news from the other world, people on earth burst into tears, because they miss their loved ones very much and are glad that they were lucky enough to hear the words of their loved ones once again. As a result, it rains.

Physics will explain the true forecast of the sign about swallows

Scientists give a different explanation for why swallows fly low before rain. Physics is an exact science. She is not prone to superstitions and any mystical overtones. Therefore, it provides a more logical and realistic interpretation of the behavior of swallows before the rain.

Thanks to him, it becomes clear that it is not a matter of magic at all, but of atmospheric pressure and humidity. The first of which falls, and the second, on the contrary, grows, rises on the eve of rain. As a result, droplets settle on the wings of birds during their flight. The wings become heavier, and the bird can no longer soar to the same height as usual.

On the other hand, she doesn’t need to do this at all. Because midges, mosquitoes and other small insects, which also gain weight under the influence of humidity, also sink closer to the ground and, unable to rise higher, begin to circle at this level. As a result, the swallows rush after them. Not only enjoying your favorite food during the flight, but also getting food for your babies who remained in the nest.

That's why swallows fly low before it rains.

Who really predicts the weather?

If you think about the explanation given by physics, it will become obvious that it is not swallows who predict the weather, but small and almost invisible insects that serve as food for black and white birds.

But, according to an old superstition, it is swallows who fly low before the rain. Why is all the credit attributed to them, and not to real predictors?

Most likely, the reason for this injustice is that midges and mosquitoes are not visible to the naked eye, and in flight it is impossible to see them at all. Swallows are another matter; you can watch their cool maneuvers for hours.

The probability of prediction is not one hundred percent

However, the low flight of swallows does not always foretell rain. Because too rapid jumps, temperature changes or colder temperatures at dusk also force insects, the food of swallows, to descend closer to the surface of the earth. And then amazing birds with a forked tail follow them.

Therefore, you shouldn’t believe one hundred percent that swallows flying almost half a meter from the ground are just before the rain? It is likely that the birds simply descended lower, getting food for themselves and their chicks.

Swallows are beautiful birds that evoke positive feelings in any person. Observing them, people have long come to the conclusion: swallows began to fly low, which means we should expect rain. This sign is always justified; do swallows really sense changes in the weather and have an intuition unique to them, which humans do not possess?

In good and clear weather, swallows usually fly high, they live in the sky and rarely land on the ground, they prefer to sit on wires, eat and drink on the fly, flying over a pond, and swallow water right in flight. And swallows’ nests are often located in cliffs, on steep slopes of ravines, in places from where they can easily fly high into the air. The explanation for why swallows fly low before rain is quite simple.

Swallows feed on small flying insects and follow them. In clear weather, currents of warm air lift winged insects, mosquitoes and midges from the surface of the earth, and thanks to this, swallows are able to catch them directly in flight.

Before the onset of rain in cloudy weather, when the relative humidity of the air rises, the wings of small insects and midges become covered with drops of water, and it becomes difficult for such insects to fly. For this reason, small insects cannot actively flap their wings, because their body weight increases and they begin to fly very low. Swallows in flight catch midges to feed themselves and their chicks, and the low flight of midges forces them to descend to get insects.

But the human eye cannot record all this; we see swallows flying, but we do not see midges high in flight. The laws of physics apply, in this case there is a law of dependence of body mass on gravity: F = m*g

To feed and replenish their energy losses, swallows need an immense amount of all kinds of insects. During the day, the swallow descends to the nest many times, bringing in its beak not one, but several insects at once for the chicks. That’s why you have to follow the insects if midges are high in the air and swallows fly high, but the low flight of midges and mosquitoes makes swallows fly almost above the ground.

Feeding only on flying midges, swallows cannot survive the winter in our harsh climate and in early autumn they fly south, to South Asia and Africa.

This logically and easily explains the low flight of swallows before the expected rain. Although the sign is considered folk, it is theoretically based on the basic laws of classical physics, and therefore is 100 percent correct. Swallows follow the food necessary for them and their chicks - small flying insects, insects fly high - and swallows are high in the sky, and the low flight of small midges reduces the flight altitude of birds.