This is Bird Note.

This is Cupid's busiest day of the air.

You could say that love is in the air. And for some birds, you can take that literally.

Love really is in the air. Consider the birds called white-throated swifts.

White-throated swifts are sparrow-sized birds with short bodies and very long, slender wings. They nest in canyons throughout the west.

When a pair of white-throated swifts wants to get to know each other better, they meet up, on the wing, high above the ground.

The two birds then grasp one another and, clinging together, tumble downward, their bodies whirling in space.

Still locked in this embrace, the swift's may plummet for over 500 feet until, just before striking the earth, they separate.

Then they flap nonchalantly back up the canyon wall.

This behavior, known as a courtship fall,

helps bond the two Swifts as a pair for the nesting season.

Some observers suspect that white-throated Swifts may even mate

during their rapid joint descent.

Visit a western canyon this spring,

and you might see,-hand a pair of

swift's literally falling in love.