Talk:Barn Swallow
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Barn Swallow is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on February 14, 2008. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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[edit] Discourage a barn swallow to nest
I work at a doctor's office, and in an effort to keep it clean for the patients I would like to know if there is a way to discourage a barn swallow to nest in certian areas?
- At the school where I go, there are spikes that line the edges of certain buildings to discourage birds from nesting. Swallows are so cool though, that I personally think its worth the mess just to watch them do their aerial show. They are amazing flyers. If I were a patient at your doctor's office, I would love to just sit and watch. Epachamo 19:53, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] About the Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference
"In the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, an open and hotly debated question is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow, for both African and European swallows, and whether they can carry coconuts or not."
In the film, this isn't really "open and hotly debated". It's just more of a trivial thing. Also, the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow is only asked to King Arthur by the bridgekeeper of the bridge of death as the third question that was asked to him, and when Arthur asked the keeper whether this was a European of African swallow he was talking about, the bridgekeeper did not know. The question of whether they carry coconuts or not is discussed in the beginning of the film, and the velocity of an unladen swallow is not discussed in this part, but how the swallow maintains it is. No proposition for the velocity is ever mentioned in the movie. Just how much they flap their wings to do so. These are all details, but if you're putting details, you might as well make them accurate. Slartibartfast1992 20:23, 25 April 2007 (UTC)
Wot? A swallow carryin' a coconut? {PowerGamer6 (talk) 07:15, 14 February 2008 (UTC)}
Monty Python also had the swallow ridiculously heavy at 5 ounces (142 g). More in-depth processing of the subject here. --Anshelm '77 (talk) 14:06, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Good article nomination on hold
This article's Good Article promotion has been put on hold. During review, some issues were discovered that can be resolved without a major re-write. This is how the article, as of November 19, 2007, compares against the six good article criteria:
- 1. Well written?:
Decently well-written, but there are some persistent issues to be dealt with. Throughout, but especially in the lead, Breeding and In culture, there are too-small paragraphs. Having single-sentence paragraphs is poor grammar, and makes it very hard to read in an article of this length. - 2. Factually accurate?: Some of the references - 12-14, 22, 23 -are inappropriately formatted; simple urls are not enough information for proper verification. Author, publication date, retrieval info (i.e. any of the core info of the web template at WP:CIT) are all desirable. Something is also off with ref number 18.
- 3. Broad in coverage?: I may have missed it, but I didn't see anything on what preys on swallows.
- 4. Neutral point of view?:
Fair representation of all significant views. - 5. Article stability? No edit wars, etc.
- 6. Images?: Accounted for with license tags and fair-use rationales where necessary. I would suggest removing the gallery, as it takes up undue space and there are no images in Breeding otherwise.
Please address these matters soon and then leave a note here showing how they have been resolved. After 48 hours the article should be reviewed again. If these issues are not addressed within 7 days, the article may be failed without further notice. Thank you for your work so far.— VanTucky Talk 00:14, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Notes
For readability, please place any comments or questions pertaining to the hold below rather than within the body of the review. Thank you!
- I've definitely sorted images and predators, and tried to address the first two points -also fixed taxobox LC. Jimfbleak (talk) 09:54, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
After some more copyediting, and your previous edits, I think it's GA-class. I'll pass it shortly. VanTucky Talk 01:45, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] PR notes
Well on the way to FA status. More nitpicks than anything else though will look at prose later.
- Needs all measurements with imperial equivalents.
Done
- To make the prose run better, I'd have the subspecies followed by "described by X in 18xx" with an inline ref rather than how it stands currently. Done
- Although over most of this swallow's range the subspecies are not contentious, - try removing it as I think this clause is superfluous. Done
I'll find some other stuff but very promising. cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 14:12, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
PS: I flipped a clause to reduce commas - this can be done in some other places. Have you read Tony1's prose guide - link on my userpage and very worthwhile. cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 14:14, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
- Would be good to have a reliable source for etymology of rustica. Shyamal (talk) 13:42, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Anglophone European name
See my recent edit of the page. In those parts of Europe where English is spoken as the native language, this bird is never called the 'barn swallow' - that's the American English name for it. It is simply the swallow. There's no 'often' about it. 86.155.207.81 (talk) 20:18, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
However, the recent proposed standardization of English names for birds worldwide (Gill, Frank, and Wright, Minturn (2006), Birds of the World: Recommended English Names Princeton: Princeton, ISBN 978-0691128276) does away with the "The _____" approach (indeed, this was one of the big obstacles to the standardization effort). Piledhigheranddeeper (talk) 18:18, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Cape Province?
Our article on Cape Province, though Wikipedia can't be trusted, says that is was broken up in 1994. Perhaps saying "...the area encompassed by the former Cape Province of South Africa" or simply "...the former Cape Province of South Africa" would be better than what this article has now, "...the Cape Province of South Africa". Or maybe I'm wrong. Benjamin Scrīptum est - Fecī 01:12, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
- Well the source cited for that fact was published in 1989, so it was the correct term then. I don't know what to replace it with. Graham87 04:32, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Range area
I'm somewhat sceptical of some of the 10 million km² ranges assigned by BirdLife International (Barn Swallow's entry here), as it appears to be their maximum for any species. The sole exception I've found so far is the Barn Owl, with 44 million km², though admittedly I haven't gone through all of the 9,821 extant species recognized by said organisation. Note that 10 million km² is about the size of Europe and less than 7 % of the world's land area; in other words a rather small range for a cosmopolitan species. Of my own books, only Raptors of the World (Ferguson-Lees et al. 2001) includes range area figures, with 60–70 million km² for the Black Kite, 54 million km² for the Peregrine Falcon and 30 million km² for the Northern Goshawk – all species that BirdLife International attributes with range areas no greater than 10 million km². Referring to alterante sources may therefore be advisable. --Anshelm '77 (talk) 14:59, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
Indeed, just by looking at the article's distribution map you can see that its breeding range alone accounts for perhaps 80 % of Eurasia and North America's land area, with some more in northern Africa and South America, putting the grand total perhaps somewhere in the 50–60 million km² region. --Anshelm '77 (talk) 16:52, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
[edit] National bird of Estonia
I see this page is featured now and it doesn't even have a picture of an Estonian 500 kroon banknote that features a barn swallow. I think it should be added to the article. Good job gettng this article to featured status though! H2ppyme (talk) 18:47, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Swallow or Martin?
I'm not entirely comfortable with one of the statements in the lead section: "in Northern Europe it is the only common species called a "swallow" rather than a "martin"".
Actually, there are others. In Swedish, for example:
- Barn Swallow = Ladusvala ("Barn Swallow")
- House Martin = Hussvala ("House Swallow")
- Sand Martin = Backsvala ("Brink Swallow")
LarRan (talk) 19:27, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
- Well, the meaning is clearly "in Northern Europe it is the only common species called a "swallow" rather than a "martin" in English", only that sounds slightly laboured. Sabine's Sunbird talk 02:13, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
can a swallow live on seed if been raised by human? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.40.240.44 (talk) 15:10, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
