Tree swallow

The tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) is a migratory bird of the family Hirundinidae. Found in the Americas, the tree swallow was first described in 1807 by French ornithologist Louis Vieillot as Hirundo bicolor. It has since been moved to its current genus, Tachycineta, within which its phylogenetic placement is debated. The tree swallow has glossy blue-green , with the exception of the blackish wings and tail, and white . The bill is black, the eyes dark brown, and the legs and feet pale brown. The female is generally duller than the male, and the first-year female has mostly brown upperparts, with some blue feathers. Juveniles have brown upperparts, and grey-brown-washed breasts. The tree swallow breeds in the US and Canada. It winters along southern US coasts south, along the Gulf Coast, to Panama and the northwestern coast of South America, and in the West Indies.

The tree swallow nests either in isolated pairs or loose groups, in both natural and artificial cavities. Breeding can start as soon as early May, although this date is occurring earlier because of climate change, and it can end as late as July. This bird is generally socially monogamous (although about 8% of males are polygynous), with high levels of extra-pair paternity. This can benefit the male, but since the female controls copulation, the lack of resolution on how this behaviour benefits females makes the high level of extra-pair paternity puzzling. The female incubates the clutch of two to eight (but usually four to seven) pure white eggs for around 14 to 15 days. The chicks hatch slightly asynchronously, allowing the female to prioritize which chicks to feed in times of food shortage. They generally fledge about 18 to 22 days after hatching. The tree swallow is sometimes considered a model organism, due to the large amount of research done on it.

An aerial , the tree swallow forages both alone and in groups, eating mostly insects, in addition to molluscs, spiders, and fruit. The nestlings, like the adult, primarily eat insects, fed to it by both sexes. This swallow is vulnerable to parasites, but, when on nestlings, these do little damage. The effect of disease can become stronger as a tree swallow gets older, as some parts of the immune system decline with age. Acquired T cell-mediated immunity, for example, decreases with age, whereas both innate and acquired humoral immunity do not. Because of its large range and stable population, the tree swallow is considered to be least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In the US, it is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, and in Canada by the Migratory Birds Convention Act. This swallow is negatively affected by human activities, such as the clearing of forests; acidified lakes can force a breeding tree swallow to go long distances to find calcium-rich food items to feed to its chicks.

## Taxonomy and etymology

The tree swallow was described as Hirundo bicolor by Louis Pierre Vieillot in his Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de l'Amérique Septentrionale, published in 1807. It was then placed in its current genus Tachycineta when Jean Cabanis established it in 1850. In 1878, Elliott Coues suggested that the tree swallow, at the very least, be put in its own subgenus, Iridoprocne, on the basis of its plumage, along with the white-winged swallow, Chilean swallow, white-rumped swallow, and mangrove swallow. By 1882, he had upgraded this to a full genus. Some authors continued to use this classification, with the addition of Tumbes swallow; however, genetic evidence supports the existence of a single genus, Tachycineta. The tree swallow is also called the white-bellied swallow for its white underparts.

The generally accepted genus name is from Ancient Greek takhykinetos, "moving quickly", and the specific bicolor is Latin and means "two-coloured". The other genus name, Iridoprocne, comes from the Greek iris, meaning rainbow, and Procne, a figure who supposedly turned into a swallow.

How exactly the tree swallow is related to other members of Tachycineta is unresolved. In studies based on mitochondrial DNA, it was placed basal (meaning it was the first offshoot in the species tree) within the North American-Caribbean clade consisting of the violet-green swallow, golden swallow, and Bahama swallow. Although mitochondrial DNA is advocated as a better indicator of evolutionary changes because it evolves quickly, analyses based on it can suffer because it is only inherited from the mother, making it worse than nuclear DNA from multiple loci at representing the phylogeny of a whole group. A study based on such nuclear DNA placed the tree swallow in the most basal position within Tachycineta as a whole (as a sister group to the rest of the genus).

## Description

The tree swallow has a length between about 12 and 14 cm (4.7 and 5.5 in) and a weight of approximately 17 to 25.5 g (0.60 to 0.90 oz). Wingspan ranges from 30 to 35 cm (12 to 14 in). The male has mostly glossy blue-green , the wings and tail being blackish. The and the cheek patch are white, although the coverts are grey-brown. The bill is black, the eyes dark brown, and the legs and feet pale brown. The female is duller in colour than the male, and sometimes has a brown forehead. The second-year female also has brown upperparts, with a variable number of blue feathers; some third-year females also retain a portion of this subadult plumage. According to a 1987 study, this likely allows a younger female to explore nest sites, as the resident male is usually less aggressive to a subadult female. A 2013 study found that the resident female was less aggressive towards second-year female models when they were presented separately from older models. Why the female eventually replaces its subadult plumage is unknown; it may allow males to assess female quality, as pairs mate assortatively based on plumage brightness. The juvenile tree swallow can be distinguished by its brown upperparts and grey-brown-washed breast.

### Voice

The tree swallow's song consists of three parts: the chirp, the whine, and the gurgle. These sections may be repeated or omitted, and all can stand alone. The first, as the chirp call (sometimes divided into the contact call and solicitation call), is made by the female during copulation and in both sexes to stimulate the nestlings to beg or (in some populations) when their mate leaves or enters the nest cavity. The whine, generally consisting of a downward shift in frequency followed by an upward shift, may be given alone as the anxiety call, occasionally made in response to certain predators. The gurgle, as when it appears at the end of the song, is usually uttered twice. It is likely involved in pair bonding. The chatter call is used to advertise nest sites (the reason it is also known as the "nest-site advertising call") and is also given to intruding conspecifics. A short high-pitched submission call is sometimes uttered after an aggressive encounter with another tree swallow. While being physically restrained or in pain, a distress call may be given. The male often utters a ticking (or rasping) aggression call during copulation, and both sexes use it at the end of mobbing dives. The alarm call is given in reaction to predators and other intruders, and can serve to induce older nestlings to crouch and stop begging when a predator is near.

Communication between parents and offspring can be disrupted by human-generated noise. A 2014 study, for example, found that broods for whom white noise was played were less likely to crouch or stop begging in response to alarm calls. Parents did not alter their calls to compensate, likely increasing predation risk. Noise can also disrupt whether parents respond to begging, but this may be balanced out by the louder calls nestlings give when exposed to it. Increased begging effort, however, may be ineffective or costly for louder levels of noise.

## Distribution and habitat

The tree swallow breeds in North America. Its range extends to north-central Alaska and up to the tree line in Canada. It is found as far south as Tennessee in the eastern part of its range, California and New Mexico in the west, and Kansas in the centre. It occasionally breeds further south in the US, and vagrants are sometimes found in the Arctic Circle, the northern Pacific, Greenland, and Europe. The wintering range is from California and southwestern Arizona in the west and southeastern Virginia in the east south along the Gulf Coast to the West Indies, Panama, and the northwestern South American coast. While migrating, this swallow often uses stop-over sites, spending an average of 57 days at these areas during autumn. To get to its wintering range, it often uses one of three flyways: the Western flyway, west of the Rocky Mountains; the Central flyway, between the Rocky Mountains and the Great Lakes, stretching south into Eastern Mexico; and the Eastern flyway, from the Great Lakes east. When a swallow returns to nest, it usually does not change breeding sites.

The breeding habitat of this bird is primarily in open and wooded areas, especially those near water. It roosts every night during the non-breeding season, preferring to rest in cane or reed beds over water, but it is also found over land and on trees and wires. Roosting sites are generally 100 to 150 kilometres (62 to 93 mi) apart.

## Behaviour

Because of the large amount of research on the tree swallow and how it willingly breeds in nest boxes, biologist Jason Jones recommended that it be considered a model organism. Although it is aggressive during the breeding season, this swallow is sociable outside of it, forming flocks sometimes numbering thousands of birds.

### Breeding

The tree swallow nests in structures with pre-existing holes, both natural and artificial. These were once found only in forested regions, but the building of nest boxes has allowed this bird to expand into open habitats. This swallow usually nests in the area it bred the year before; only about 14% of females and 4% of males disperse to breed at a new site per year. Most do not go far, usually breeding at sites less than 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away from their original grounds. Dispersal is influenced by breeding success; of the adult females that fail to fledge a chick, about 28% disperse, compared to 5% of successful breeders. Natal dispersal (when a bird does not return to the site it was born at to breed) is common in the tree swallow and occurs more frequently than breeding dispersal. It nests both in loose groups and isolated pairs. When nesting in loose groups, nests are usually spaced at least 10 to 15 metres (33 to 49 ft) apart, and those that are closer in distance are usually further apart in terms of laying date. In natural cavities, the tree swallow nests about 27 metres (89 ft) apart from its neighbor. The nest hole in these situations is, on average, 3.4 metres (11 ft) above ground level, although about 45% of them are less than 2 metres (6.6 ft) above the ground. Higher cavities are likely favoured because they reduce predation, while lower nest holes may be chosen to avoid competition. Entrance widths are often between 4 and 5 centimetres (1.6 and 2.0 in), whereas entrance heights are more variable: a 1989 study found openings ranging from 3.5 to 26 centimetres (1.4 to 10.2 in). Cavity volume is generally below 1,000 cm3 (61 cu in). After finding a suitable place to nest, the male perches near it and calls frequently. A lack of sites can cause fights between birds, sometimes resulting in deaths. This swallow usually defends an area around the nest with a radius of about 4.6 metres (15 ft), as well as extra nests inside of that , by blocking the entrance to the nest and chasing intruders. The nest cup itself is made from grass, moss, pine needles, and aquatic plants collected mostly by the female, and is lined with feathers gathered primarily by the male in fights. The feathers may function to insulate the nest, decreasing incubation time and likely preventing hypothermia in chicks. In addition to faster growth for chicks, eggs cool slower in nests with feathers than those without. However, a study published in 2018 did not find a significant correlation between the number of feathers in nests that were artificially warmed versus those that were not. Additionally, it found that nests in St. Denis, Saskatchewan used significantly less feathers than those in Annapolis Valley, despite the former being further north. However, temperatures in Nova Scotia (where Annapolis Valley is) are generally lower than those in Saskatchewan, possibly explaining the unexpected result.

During courtship, a male tree swallow attacks an unknown female. This can be stimulated through wing-fluttering flight by the female, which may be an invitation to court. The male may then take a vertical posture, with a raised and slightly spread tail and wings flicked and slightly drooped. This prompts the female to try to land on the male's back, but he flies to prevent this; this is repeated. After courting the female, the male flies to his chosen nest site, which the female inspects. During copulation, the male hovers over the female, and then mounts her, giving ticking calls. He then makes with the female while holding her neck feathers in his bill and standing on her slightly outstretched wings. Copulation occurs multiple times.

Eggs are laid from early May to mid-June (although this is happening earlier due to climate change) and chicks fledge between mid-June and July. Latitude is positively correlated with laying date, while female age and wing length (longer wings allow more efficient foraging) are negatively correlated. The tree swallow is likely an income breeder, as it breeds based on food abundance and temperatures during the laying season. This species is generally socially monogamous, but up to 8% of breeding males are polygynous. Polygyny is influenced by territory: males having territories with nest boxes at least 5 metres (16 ft) apart are more likely to be polygynous. It is suggested that this polygyny depends on the conditions during the laying season: better conditions, such as an abundance of food, allow females in polygyny who do not receive help foraging to lay more eggs.

The tree swallow has high rates of extra-pair paternity, 38% to 69% of nestlings being a product of extra-pair paternity, and 50% to 87% of broods containing at least one nestling that was the result of an extra-pair copulation. One factor that might contribute to this is that females have control over copulation, making paternity guards ineffective. This may be mitigated by more frequent copulations just before egg laying, according to a 2009 study which found that within-pair copulation attempts peaked three to one days before the first egg was laid and that more successful attempts during this period increased the share of within-pair young males had. This latter finding contradicts those of a 1993 and a 1994 study. Extra-pair paternity does not change the level of parental care the male contributes in the tree swallow. A significant number of extra-pair fathers may be floaters (those present at breeding grounds that presumably do not breed). A 2001 study found that out of 35 extra-pair nestlings, 25 were sired by local residents, three by residents of nearby sites, and seven by male floaters. In the tree swallow, floating thus helps males in good condition produce more chicks, while allowing males in bad condition to be successful by investing in parental care. There is also a significant population of female floaters; a 1985 study estimated that around 23% to 27% of females were floaters, of which about 47% to 79% were subadults.

Why females engage in extra-pair copulation and how they choose extra-pair mates is controversial. One theory, called the genetic compatibility hypothesis, states that increased offspring fitness results from increased heterozygosity, and thus that female tree swallows would prefer to mate with males that are less genetically similar to them. Females may also choose sperm after copulation to ensure a compatible mate. In support of this theory, a 2007 study found that extra-pair offspring were more heterozygous than within-pair offspring. However, a 2005 paper discovered a slight negative correlation between a pair's genetic similarity and the proportion of extra-pair young in their nest. The good genes theory says that females choose extra-pair males based on the quality of their genes. This would explain why some tree swallows do not have any extra-pair young, whereas others do. However, most studies have not found phenotypic differences between extra-pair and within-pair males (although a 2007 study did find that older males with brighter plumage were more likely to mate outside of the pair bond). Additionally, according to a 2017 thesis, extra-pair offspring are no more likely to join their natal population than within-pair offspring. Another theory suggests that extra-pair paternity is context dependent, with extra-pair young outperforming within-pair young in certain situations, and underperforming in other environments. A 2017 dissertation, for example, found that extra-pair young were larger, heavier, and longer-winged than within-pair young when both were exposed to predator mounts, while within-pair young were heavier than extra-pair young when they were shown non-predator mounts. This thesis also found that within-pair young outperformed extra-pair young in terms of life-time fitness when they were raised in less-variable environments, suggesting that extra-pair offspring have less developmental plasticity than within-pair offspring. A 2018 study weakly supported this context dependent hypothesis, finding that extra-pair offspring were more likely to fledge than within-pair offspring in experimentally enlarged broods; however, neither telomere length (a correlate of survival and reproductive success) nor size 12 days after hatching were significantly different among these young, and no significant differences between the two types were found in non-enlarged broods.

Studies attempting to prove the adaptability of extra-pair paternity for females have been criticized for the lack of positive effect that increased offspring fitness would have when compared with the potential cost of decreased fitness for the female, such as increased predation from searching for mates. Thus, theories based on the non-adaptivity of extra-pair paternity for females have been postulated. These theories are based on genetic constraint, where an allele resulting in a maladaptive behaviour is maintained because it also contributes to a beneficial phenotype. The theory of intersexual antagonistic pleiotropy says that strong selection for extra-pair paternity in males (as seen in this bird) overrides the weak selection against extra-pair paternity in females. The hypothesis of intrasexual antagonistic pleiotropy, meanwhile, argues that extra-pair paternity is present because the genes regulating it have pleiotropic effects on aspects of female fitness, like within-pair copulation rate.

The tree swallow lays a clutch of two to eight, although usually four to seven, pure white, and translucent at laying, eggs that measure about 19 by 14 mm (0.75 by 0.55 in). These eggs are incubated by the female, usually after the second-to-last egg is laid, for 11 to 20 days, although most hatch after 14 to 15 days. About 88% of nests produce at least one nestling, but this can be lowered by poor weather and a younger breeding female. The eggs generally hatch in the order they were laid. They also hatch slightly asynchronously, with an average of 28 hours between when the first and final nestling emerges. This can result in a weight hierarchy where earlier-hatched chicks weigh more (especially early in the nestling period) than those hatched later, allowing the female to prioritize which chick to give food to during food shortages. This likely has its greatest effect early in the nestling period, as by 12 days after hatching, there are generally no significant weight differences. Infanticide of the chicks and eggs sometimes occurs when a male is replaced by another male. Infanticide usually does not occur when the clutch is not complete, as replacement males then have a chance to fertilize at least one egg. When the male arrives during incubation, it sometimes commits infanticide, but other times adopts the eggs, as there is a chance that some eggs were sired from the replacement male. If the replacement male arrives after the chicks hatch, infanticide is usually committed, though the female will sometimes prevent this.

Nests produced by females of better condition often have sex ratios skewed towards high quality males. A 2000 study hypothesized this to be because males have more variable reproductive success, and therefore that a high quality male produces more offspring than a female of similar quality.

The growth and survival of nestling tree swallows is influenced by their environment. In both younger and older nestlings (those between two and four days old and between nine and eleven days, respectively) growth is positively influenced by a higher maximum temperature, particularly in the former. A later hatching date negatively impacts growth, especially for younger nestlings. Older chicks grow somewhat faster when insects are abundant. Growth in younger nestlings increases with age, while in old nestlings, it decreases as they get older. Young tree swallows are able to thermoregulate at least 75% as effectively as the adult at an average age of 9.5 days when out of the nest, and from four to eight days old when in the nest (depending on the size of the brood). The nestlings fledge after about 18 to 22 days, with about 80% fledging success. Like hatching success, this is negatively affected by unfavourable weather and a younger female. Chicks may be preyed on by snakes and raccoons. This predation can be exacerbated by begging calls.

### Feeding

The tree swallow forages up to 50 metres (160 ft) above the ground singly or in groups. Its flight is a mix of flapping and gliding. During the breeding season, this is mostly within 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) of the nest site. When it is foraging for nestlings, though, it usually goes up to 200 metres (660 ft) from the nest, mostly staying in sight of it, and forages at a height up to 12 metres (39 ft). As well as being caught in flight, insects are sometimes taken from the ground, water, vegetation, and vertical surfaces.

The tree swallow eats mostly insects, with some molluscs, spiders, and fruit. In North America, flies make up about 40% of the diet, supplemented with beetles and ants. Otherwise, the diet is about 90% flies. The insects taken are a mix of aquatic and terrestrial organisms; the former are an important source of omega-3 highly unsaturated fatty acids. This is because, although the tree swallow can convert the precursor α-Linolenic acid into highly unsaturated fatty acids like docosahexaenoic acid, it cannot do so in the quantities needed. The seed and berry food is mainly from the genus Myrica, which is mainly taken in all four of the Northern Hemisphere seasons except summer. Crustaceans were also found to be important in the wintering diet in a study on Long Island, New York.

Both sexes feed the nestlings (although the male feeds the chicks less than the females) resulting in about 10 to 20 feedings per hour. The parents often use the chirp call to stimulate nestlings to beg. This is used more frequently with younger chicks, as they beg less than older chicks when the parent arrives with food but does not call. The likelihood of begging in the absence of parents also increases with age. The hatching order affects how much a chick is fed; last-hatched nestlings (in cases where hatching is asynchronous) are likely fed less than those hatched earlier. Nestlings closer to the entrance of the nest are also more likely to be fed, as are those who beg first and more frequently. The overall rate at which a brood is fed also increases with more begging. The diet itself is composed mostly of insects, those in the orders Diptera, Hemiptera, and Odonata making up most of the diet. These insects are mostly up to 10 mm (0.39 in) in size, but sometimes are up to 60 mm (2.4 in) in length. In nests near lakes acidified by humans, calcium supplements, primarily fish bones, crayfish exoskeletons, clam shells, and the shells of bird eggs, are harder to find. This forces the adult tree swallow to travel further than usual—sometimes up to 650 m (2,130 ft) away from the nest—to get these calcium supplements.

## Survival

The tree swallow has an average lifespan of 2.7 years and a maximum of 12 years. About 79% of individuals do not survive their first year, and those that do face an annual mortality rate of 40% to 60%. Most deaths are likely the result of cold weather, which reduces insect availability, leading to starvation. Lifespan is associated with telomere length: a 2005 study that used return rates (to the breeding site of the previous year) as a proxy for survival found that those with the longest telomeres at one year of age had a predicted lifespan of 3.5 years, compared to the 1.2 years for those with the shortest telomeres. Whether short telomeres cause a reduction in fitness or are simply an indicator of it is unknown. Regardless, a 2016 thesis found that measures of condition were positively correlated with telomere length. Males also generally had longer telomeres than females, as did smaller-winged birds. Individuals with shorter telomeres may compensate for potential losses in fitness by increasing reproductive effort, whereas those with longer telomeres may decrease their investment, as evidenced by the smaller proportion of chicks females with longer telomeres fledged. Telomere length is highly heritable, and is especially dependent on that of the mother.

### Predation

The tree swallow is susceptible to a wide range of predators. Eggs, nestlings, and adults in the nest fall victim to black rat snakes, American crows, American kestrels, common grackles, northern flickers, chipmunks, deermice, domestic cats, weasels, American black bears, and raccoons. While flying or perched, predators to the tree swallow include American kestrels, black-billed magpies, barred owls, great horned owls, merlins, peregrine falcons, and sharp-shinned hawks. Whilst evasive flight is the usual response to predators in free-flying swallows, mobbing behavior is common around the nest, and is directed not just towards predators, but also towards nest site competitors, who might be scared off by it. This behaviour involves the swallow swarming and diving towards (but not actually striking) the intruder from around 5 to 20 m (16 to 66 ft) above the ground, usually giving soft ticking calls near the end and coming within about 0.5 to 2 m (1.6 to 6.6 ft) of the predator. It seems to alter the intensity of its attacks based on which predator approaches; a 1992 study found that ferrets elicited a more vigorous defence than black rat snakes, and a 2019 thesis similarly discovered that black rat snake models were dived at the least and eastern chipmunk models the most. It is suggested that the snake prompted a weaker response because defence behaviours may be less effective and more dangerous to perform against it.

### Parasites

The tree swallow is vulnerable to various parasites, such as the blood parasite Trypanosoma. It is also susceptible to the flea Ceratophyllus idius and the feather mites Pteronyssoides tyrrelli, Trouessartia, and (likely) Hemialges. It is also probably afflicted by lice of the genera Brueelia and Myrsidea. There is a correlation between the number of fleas on a bird and the number of young it is caring for. This relationship is speculated to arise from an improved microclimate for fleas due to a larger clutch. Nestlings also suffer from parasites, like blow-flies of the genus Protocalliphora, which results in a loss of blood by nestlings. These parasites, though, are found in a majority of nests and do not seem to have a large effect on nestlings. A study published in 1992 found that the effects of blow-fly parasitism explained only about 5.5% of the variation in nestling mass.

### Immunology

In the breeding female tree swallow, humoral immunocompetence (HIC) is inversely correlated with laying date. This means that, on average, a bird that lays its eggs earlier has a stronger antibiotic response to an antigen than a bird that lays later. A tree swallow that is handicapped by wing-clipping generally has a lower HIC. These relationships could be interpreted as supporting the conclusion that a female that lays earlier acquires a higher HIC, but the authors of the study that found the correlations believed this unlikely, due to the colder temperatures near the start of the breeding season. Instead, they thought that HIC could be a measure of quality, and that a higher quality female is able to lay earlier. The authors also postulated that it is an indicator of workload, as shown by the lower HIC of handicapped birds.

Higher quality female tree swallows (as measured by laying date) are able to maintain their reproductive effort while diverting resources to fight an immune challenge. Lower quality swallows are less able to do so; a 2005 study in Ithaca, New York, found that late-laying females with an artificially enlarged brood, although able to maintain offspring quality, had lower responses to an immune challenge than those that were of higher quality or did not have an enlarged brood. Whether a female chooses to prioritize offspring quality or immunocompetence is likely related to survival probabilities; a 2005 study discovered that females with an enlarged brood in Alaska, where survival rates are lower, had weaker immune responses, but kept reproductive effort steady, whereas those in Tennessee, with higher survival rates, had a stronger response but lower quality offspring.

In the tree swallow, some components of the immune system deteriorate with age. Acquired T cell-mediated immunity, for example, declines with age in the female tree swallow. But, the age of a female does not affect both the acquired and innate humoral immunity; the lack of deterioration in the former contrasts with studies on barn swallows and female collared flycatchers. Because of this immunosenescence (a decrease in immune function with age), older females infected with a disease generally visit their nest less, resulting in their nestlings growing slower. They are also likely to lose weight because of an infection.

## Status

The tree swallow is considered to be least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This is due to the bird's large range of about 834,000 km2 (322,000 sq mi), and its stable population, estimated to be about 20,000,000 individuals. It is protected in the US by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, and in Canada by the Migratory Birds Convention Act. In some parts of the US, the range of this swallow has extended south, likely due to changes in land use, the reintroduction of beavers, and nest boxes installed for bluebirds. The tree swallow is negatively impacted by the clearing of forests and the reduction of marshes, the latter reducing the habitat available for wintering. This swallow has to compete for nest sites with the common starling, house sparrow (both introduced to North America), bluebirds, and the house wren (which also destroys nests without occupying them). Acidification of lakes can force this swallow to go relatively long distances to find calcium-rich items, and can result in chicks eating plastic. Other chemicals, like pesticides and other pollutants, can become highly concentrated in eggs, and PCBs are associated with the abandonment of a pair's clutch. Contamination from oil sands mine sites can negatively affect tree swallows by increasing the presence of toxins, as measured by the activity of ethoxyresorufin-o-deethylase (a detoxification enzyme) in nestlings. This normally has little influence on nestling and fledging, though extreme weather can reveal the effects: a 2006 study found that nestlings from wetlands most polluted by oil sands processing material were more than 10 times more likely to die than those from a control site during periods of synchronized cold temperatures and heavy rainfall, compared to the lack of difference in mortality between the groups when the weather was less extreme. A 2019 paper, however, found that increased precipitation caused a similar decline in hatching and nestling success for nestlings both near and far from oil sands sites. In another study, birds exposed to mercury fledged, on average, one less chick than those not, an effect amplified by warm weather. In addition, cold weather events can rapidly reduce the availability of aerial insect prey, and in some populations with advancing reproduction may result in reduced offspring survival.

Species of bird in the Americas

Taxa named by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot


King Creole

King Creole is a 1958 American musical drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and based on the 1952 novel A Stone for Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins. Produced by Hal B. Wallis, the film stars Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Dolores Hart, Dean Jagger, and Vic Morrow, and follows a nineteen-year-old (Presley) who gets mixed up with crooks and involved with two women.

Presley later indicated that of all the characters he portrayed throughout his acting career, the role of Danny Fisher in King Creole was his favorite. To make the film, Presley was granted a 60-day deferment from January to March 1958 for beginning his military service. Location shooting in New Orleans was delayed several times by crowds of fans attracted by the stars, particularly Presley.

The film was released on July 2, 1958 by Paramount Pictures to critical and commercial success. Many critics were unanimous in their praise of Presley's performance, and the film peaked at number five on the Variety box office earnings charts. The soundtrack song "Hard Headed Woman" reached number one on the Billboard singles chart and number two on the R&B chart, and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), while the soundtrack album peaked at number two on the Billboard chart.

## Plot

Nineteen-year-old high school student Danny Fisher works before and after school to support his father and sister Mimi. After Danny's mother died in an accident three years earlier, his grieving father lost his job as a pharmacist, and moved his impoverished family to the French Quarter in New Orleans. Danny's family anxiously await his graduation from high school on the morrow that did not occur in the previous year due to Danny having to repeat a year of school due to his bad conduct.

At work one morning, Danny rescues Ronnie from her abusive date. After a taxi ride to Danny's high school, Ronnie kisses him. Danny responds to witnessing schoolmates' teasing by kissing Ronnie back and then punching one of them in the face when he makes a teasing remark. Danny is summoned, where Miss Pearson, his teacher, tells Principal Evans that Danny will not graduate again because of his poor attitude. Mr. Evans is sympathetic, but powerless to help, so Danny decides to drop out of school to find work, against the wishes of his father, who tries to convince Danny to stay in school.

When Danny leaves the school grounds, three young men lure him into an alley. Their leader, Shark, wants revenge for Danny hitting the teasing student at school, who turned out to be his brother. Danny defends himself so well that it impresses Shark, so Shark invites Danny to join his gang. Shark then has Danny to help the gang shoplift at a five-and-dime by singing "Lover Doll" to distract the customers and staff.

Only Nellie, who works the luncheonette, notices Danny's complicity in the theft, but she does not turn him in. Later that night, Danny meets Ronnie again at The Blue Shade nightclub, where Danny is now employed. At first, she pretends not to know him, as she is accompanied by her boyfriend and the club's owner, Maxie Fields, aka "The Pig". When Maxie does not believe her, she claims she heard Danny sing once. Maxie insists that Danny prove he can sing. His rendition of "Trouble" impresses Charlie LeGrand, the honest owner of the King Creole nightclub, the only nightspot in the area not owned by Maxie. Impressed, LeGrand offers Danny a job as a singer at his club.

After leaving the club Danny meets up with the Shark gang for his share of the nightly take. He then makes his way to the five and dime at closing time to see Nellie. Danny invites Nellie to a fictitious party in a hotel room. Finding nobody else there, Nellie starts crying in fear and leaves after admitting that she still wants to see Danny again, but not under those conditions.

Meanwhile, Mr. Fisher finds employment as a pharmacist in a local drug store, but his boss, Mr. Primont—who reluctantly hired Mr. Fisher after his boss made him do so—constantly demeans Mr. Fisher out of retaliation, much to Danny's embarrassment. That situation makes it easier for Danny to go against his father's wishes and accept Charlie's job offer. When Danny becomes a hit at the King Creole, Maxie tries to hire him. Danny declines his offer out of loyalty to Charlie.

Shark, now working for Maxie, suggests to Danny they beat up Primont to help his father. One night when Mr. Fisher leaves the store dressed in Primont's hat and coat (lent due to a rainstorm), Shark recognizes him, but decides to mug him anyway, as that would be even better for Maxie's purposes. Danny's father is so badly injured that he needs expensive surgery, so Maxie pays for a specialist to perform it. Maxie later blackmails Danny into signing with him by threatening to tell his father about his involvement in the mugging, and then does it anyway. Outraged, Danny pummels Maxie for the betrayal, deceit and treachery and helps Ronnie escape him.

Maxie sends his henchmen after Danny. Shark and another gang member trap him in an alley. Danny knocks out one of his pursuers. Then Shark stabs Danny, but kills himself in the struggle. Ronnie finds a profusely bleeding Danny and takes him to her house on a bayou to recover. She asks him to forget her sordid past and to love her, even only for a short time. Danny replies that it would not be difficult to love her and kisses her. Maxie drives up, accompanied by Dummy, a member of Danny's former gang. Maxie fatally shoots Ronnie. Dummy, who had been befriended by Danny, grapples with Maxie. The gun goes off, killing its owner.

Danny returns to the King Creole, still mourning Ronnie. Nellie promises to wait for him. Then at the club he sings As Long as I Have You, that Ronnie once sang to him; a sad song with the lines "Let's think of the future, forget the past, you're not my first love, but you're my last". Mr Fisher also shows up to listen to his son sing.

## Cast

- Elvis Presley as Danny Fisher
- Carolyn Jones as Ronnie, Maxie's mistress
- Walter Matthau as Maxie Fields, the local gangster
- Dolores Hart as Nellie, a five-and-dime employee who falls for Danny
- Dean Jagger as Mr. Fisher, Danny's father
- Liliane Montevecchi as Forty Nina, a stripper at the King Creole nightclub
- Vic Morrow as Shark, Maxie's lead thug
- Paul Stewart as Charlie LeGrand, owner of the King Creole
- Jan Shepard as Mimi Fisher, Danny's sister
- Brian G. Hutton as Sal, a member of Shark's gang.
- Jack Grinnage as Dummy, a mute member of Shark's gang.
- Dick Winslow as Eddie Burton
- Raymond Bailey as Mr. Evans, the school principal
- Gavin Gordon as Mr. Primont, drug store manager and Mr. Fisher's overbearing boss

## Production

Hal Wallis acquired the rights to A Stone for Danny Fisher in February 1955 for \$25,000, with the intention of giving the lead role of a New York boxer to either James Dean or Ben Gazzara. The role was originally written for Dean, but the project was cancelled after his death in 1955. In January 1957, following the success of an off-Broadway stage version of the story, Presley was suggested as a possible replacement. After negotiations were completed, the character of Fisher was changed from a boxer to a singer and the location was moved from New York to New Orleans.

Wallis selected Michael Curtiz, a noted director of the Hollywood studio system whose works included The Adventures of Robin Hood, Yankee Doodle Dandy and Casablanca. Curtiz decided to shoot the film in black and white for dramatic ambiance and to give the streets a film noir appearance. He also selected an experienced cast to support Presley, including Walther Matthau and Carolyn Jones, as well as Dolores Hart, Presley's co-star in the 1957 film Loving You. Curtiz instructed a "taken aback" Presley to lose fifteen pounds and shave his sideburns for the role, both of which Presley did.

On December 20, 1957, a month before filming was due to begin, Presley received his draft notice. Presley and Paramount had to request special permission to defer Presley's enlistment to allow him to finish the film. Both pointed out to the draft board that a delay in filming would cost them a large sum of money invested in the pre-production of the film. On December 27, Presley received a 60-day deferment.

Filming took place between January 20 and March 10, 1958, mostly at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, California, and on location in the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana, while the scene of the bayou was filmed at Lake Pontchartrain. During filming, Presley was constantly moved to avoid the crowds of fans who came to see him on location, which delayed the film-making. Wallis had rented a house for Presley's privacy, and a second one after one of his assistants noticed that the back of the houses in the block led to the back of the houses on the adjacent street. To escape from the crowds, Presley would climb to the roof of one house and cross over onto the roof of the other. After a fan discovered his path, he resided on the tenth floor of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, which was rented for the whole cast.

Before filming began, Curtiz was convinced that Presley would be a "conceited boy", but after a few weeks of working together, he described Presley as a "lovely boy" who would go on to be a "wonderful actor". Presley, after seeing an early copy of the finished film, thanked Curtiz for giving him the opportunity to show his potential as an actor; he would later cite Danny Fisher as his favorite role of his acting career. Fourteen days after the completion of King Creole, Presley was officially inducted into the U.S. Army.

## Reception

The film was first shown at Loew's State Theater in New York City on July 2, 1958. During the opening week, it ranked number five in box office earnings on the Variety national survey. The film received critical acclaim.

During the May of 1959 Mexican premiere at Américas Cinema in Mexico City, a riot started when according to the local newspapers 600 teenagers broke into the theater without paying the admission fee. The crowd occupied the balcony area and destroyed the seats, while they threw lit papers and debris to the attendants. As some women tried to leave the premises, they were stripped by the rioters. The group was reported to be a mixture of university students and other locals that joined. The anti-riot police arrived to the scene where they scattered the crowd, while no arrests were made. Writer Parménides García Saldaña later recounted the incident on his article "El Rey Criollo", in which he detailed the presence of gangs and their harassment of the women in attendance.

### Critical reception

Billboard wrote:

> Elvis Presley's new film shapes up as a box-office winner. It's got plenty of action and characterisation and the star gives his best acting performance to date ... (the) Incidents and characters of the original novel are distorted, but the plot stands up well and the dialog is salty and emotion-packed. As Danny, Presley exhibits improved histrionics and provides many moving and tense moments. Carolyn Jones is a knockout as a fallen thrush who would like to love him; their aborted romance gives the pic its finest scenes.

Variety declared that the film "Shows the young star [Presley] as a better than fair actor". Howard Thompson of The New York Times also gave a favorable review:

> Mr. Curtiz and his players have got it snugly draped around Mr. Presley's shoulders. And there it stays, until a limp melodramatic home stretch, even with eight or so of those twitching, gyrating musical interludes. ... These also perfectly typify the Bourbon Street honky-tonks that Mr. Curtiz and his fine photographer, Russ Harlan, have beguilingly drenched with atmosphere. Matching, or balancing, the tunes are at least seven characterizations that supply the real backbone and tell the story of the picture. ... for Mr. Presley, in his third screen attempt, it's a pleasure to find him up to a little more than Bourbon Street shoutin' and wigglin'. Acting is his assignment in this shrewdly upholstered showcase, and he does it, so help us over a picket fence.

The Spectator, however, criticized the relationship of Presley's character with his love interests:

> The girls in his (Michael Curtiz's) latest film, King Creole, are both played by good, serious actresses: Carolyn Jones .. and Dolores Hart, ... both are shown to be hungrily, desperately, unpridefully in love with him (Presley's character). They have no existence, except in him; do nothing but wait for him; hope for nothing but a little rough affection ... Instead of being kissed, they beg for kisses, which Mr. Presley sulkily and reluctantly hands out now and then, with the air of a small, fastidious boy being press to eat marshmallow and, though he feels a bit sick not quite knowing how to get out of it ... (it) really seems to suggest this is a god come down among us for a spell; and when tender and infinitely patient in spite of the long past of infidelity, nonchalance, and what looks to an observer like plain indifference from him, her lips poised for the kiss that doesn't come ... As the most extreme example of a contemporary idol, Mr. Presley is pretty fascinating, and, though you may be put off at first by his pale, puffy, bruised looking babyish face, by the weary cherubic decadence you might imagine in Nero, and the excessive greasiness of his excessively long, spiky locks, his films, however bad (and King Creole is pretty low on his list), are well worth taking a look at.

About Presley's performance, Down Beat wrote: "Let it be noted that Elvis Presley's latest, King Creole, is his best picture thus far--comparatively speaking, of course. Maybe about 10 more films (and as many drama coaches) from now Elvis might begin to get an inkling of what acting's all about." TV-Radio Mirror magazine praised Presley's acting over his past roles: "Elvis Presley does his strongest acting job so far. Two years ago, Presley on the screen was a laughing stock. But nobody is laughing now". Meanwhile, The Monthly Film Bulletin criticized the violence depicted in the film and rated the movie a III, denoting poor, stating, "This entangled series of cliches, each with more unlikely motivation than the last, provides the most unattractive Presley vehicle so far. His numbers only offer intermittent relief from the calculated violence and viciousness, and he can do little to balance the disagreeable movie".

Commonweal lamented the lack of punishment to the main character for his actions, but praised the director for his influence on Presley:

> No doubt adults won't be moved much by "King Creole" one way or the other, but unfortunately teenage audiences may be taken in, especially since Danny is supposed to be a sympathetic character and at the end goes unpunished by the police for his crimes ... It must be said in favor of Director Michael Curtiz that he does succeed in getting Presley to act every now and then, but the cards are stacked in such an obvious manner against Danny that even Montgomery Clift couldn't have handled the role with conviction.

Catholic World commented:

> Playing a part— an underprivileged youth who, on and off, displays some dignity and honest aspirations — that requires some histrionic effort, Presley shows signs that he is getting the hang of acting. The picture itself, however, after a promising enough beginning turns into a lurid melodramatic hash composed in about equal part of juvenile delinquency, gangsterism and sex. These may be legitimate dramatic subjects but the script gives them an illegitimate viewpoint and leaves muddled moral issues dangling.

The Florence Times wrote of Presley:

> the fellow isn't a bad actor. Of course, he's nothing at all sensational and the Academy Award isn't in danger, but there are Hollywood habitues who've gotten by for years with less ability. In fact, given the normal amount of the more painstaking type of direction, it is entirely possible that Mr. Wiggle-hips could develop into a really competent actor. As long, however, as he can continue to attract audiences in present proportions there's little need in worrying with drama schools.

Allrovi rated the movie with four stars out of five, stating: "The film's highlight is a brief exchange of fisticuffs between Elvis and Walter Matthau. Together with Jailhouse Rock, King Creole is one of the best filmed examples of the untamed, pre-army Elvis Presley".

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 7.10/10.

## Home media

The film was released on VHS by Paramount Pictures in 1986. In 2000, it was re-released on DVD with remastered sound and image, featuring the original theatrical trailer. On April 21, 2020, it was released on Blu-ray for the first time as part of the Paramount Presents label.

## Soundtrack

## See also

- List of American films of 1958
- List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a film review aggregation website
- List of hood films

1958 film by Michael V. Gazzo, Hal B. Wallis, Herbert Baker, Michael Curtiz


Live & Kicking

Live & Kicking is a British children's television series that originally aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1993 to 15 September 2001. It was the replacement for Going Live!, and took many of its features from it, such as phone-ins, games, comedy, competitions and the showing of cartoons. Once Live & Kicking had become established in series two, it reached its height in popularity during series four, when it was presented by Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston; their final edition won a BAFTA award. After this the programme's ratings dropped with the launch of SMTV Live on ITV and the show ended in 2001.

## History

Live & Kicking was conceived as a replacement for Going Live!. It was first broadcast on 2 October 1993 at 9 am on BBC1. The original hosts were Andi Peters, Emma Forbes who had presented a cookery segment in Going Live!, and John Barrowman. For the second series, Barrowman was relegated to hosting the showbiz Electric Circus segment, leaving Peters and Forbes to become the main hosts. He left after one series of Electric Circus to concentrate on acting. Comedy duo Trevor and Simon and Peter Simon, in the Run the Risk segment, were also regulars who had featured on Going Live!.

While the first series was not as popular as its predecessor, the second series was more successful. It was broadcast during the winter months, from September to April, with Fully Booked replacing it during the summer. New episodes of the Rugrats were shown. The series went out opposite ITV's What's Up Doc? but during its third series issues were raised by the ITC, and a number of people left including Don Austen and John Eccleston (Bro and Bro's puppeteers) who defected to Live & Kicking to star as a couple of leprechaun brothers Sage and Onion.

Andi Peters decided to leave the programme in 1996, after being offered an executive role at LWT, where he also presented Saturday mid-morning music programme The Noise. Emma Forbes initially planned to continue, but during the programme's summer break she also decided to leave, after finding out she was pregnant.

They were replaced by Zoë Ball and Jamie Theakston, who presented it for three years. According to the BBC, the show's popularity was at its peak during the 1996/1997 series when the show regularly had 2.5 million viewers. Around this time Mr. Blobby, played by Barry Killerby, also appeared on the series.

After three years, Ball decided to move on due to a hectic schedule, and Theakston followed. The final episode hosted by Ball and Theakston later won the show a children's BAFTA award for Best Entertainment show in November 1999.

The show returned in Autumn 1999 with new presenters Emma Ledden and Steve Wilson,. They only lasted for one series, because ratings dropped to 1.6 million during their tenure. At the same time rival SMTV Live on competitor channel ITV was relaunched to feature more comedic elements and its innuendo and features began to gain popularity. Fully Booked, the BBC's summer replacement, was also revamped and retitled as FBi, but ratings continued to drop. The following October, the programme was completely revamped, with a line-up of four: Ortis Deley, Katy Hill, Trey Farley and Sarah Cawood.

Ratings continued to plummet, because of the continuing success of SMTV Live. In an unprecedented move, in March 2001 the BBC extended the series over the summer, like SMTV was broadcast, but announced it would end in the autumn. Hill was replaced by Heather Suttie as the show was moved to BBC Scotland on 21 April until 15 September 2001 when the final show aired. It was replaced by The Saturday Show, which continued to be broadcast all year round.

## Format

Live & Kicking was a weekly magazine show broadcast every Saturday morning, from late September or early October to April and in Series 8, it was broadcast from October to September. It was aimed at young people. It featured music performances, "hot seat" questions for celebrity guests, phone-ins, games, comedy sketches, competitions, and television programmes and cartoons. It used the taglines "Miss it, miss out" and "The only way to start your weekend" on promotional adverts for the show. As well as the main presenters, there were regulars such as comedy duo Trevor and Simon, and later Ben, Gez and Rich from The Cheese Shop and SuperGirly. A segment in the first few series that was an adaptation of Going Live's Double Dare was Run the Risk, a game in which teams of children completed various obstacle courses and challenges. Gunge was often included to make the tasks harder. Run The Risk was later broadcast separately. From 1994 until 2000, there was a showbiz segment called the Electric Circus, which featured the latest films, music, computer games and gossip. It was first presented by John Barrowman after he stepped aside as a regular presenter, and was later hosted by a variety of people.

The first series featured the computerised head of a cat named "Ratz" announcing links, but this was dropped after one series. It was replaced by human announcer Mitch Johnson, who, as well as providing commentary and links for each item, would interact with both the audience and the presenters too. From the second series, two puppet leprechauns, later named as Sage and Onion, became regulars. They were played by Don Austen and John Eccleston, and were designed and built by Darryl Worbey Studios. They performed comedy sketches throughout the morning, and often interacted with the people in the studio. Another comedy character who first appeared in the third series was Mr Blobby, who had previously appeared in Noel's House Party. Most regular features were dropped for the final series, when the show was revamped. A feature that stuck throughout was the jingle for the phone number, first 081 811 8181, then 0181 811 8181, then 0845 610 1515.

As well as the television show, Live and Kicking launched a music CD, composed of the best music that artists had sung live on the programme. A video game called Live and Kicking: Showmaker was also created, where the user could combine elements of the show to create their own television production on a small scale. A monthly magazine was also produced, though sales of the magazine dropped significantly towards the end of Live & Kicking'''s production, reflecting its loss of viewers.

For series five and six, there was a short version of the show that aired on Friday afternoons called L&K Friday, but this was cancelled after two series. The regular Saturday presenters Jamie Theakston and Zoe Ball presented the first series, and Steve Wilson and Liz Fraser presented the second series. A 90-minute version of the show also aired on BBC Choice and was entitled L&K Replay.

In May 2000, two months before Wilson and Ledden officially resigned from Live & Kicking, the show was brought back for a one-off special during the summer break. It was to mix in with the BBC's Music Live and the show was titled as Music Live & Kicking with Wilson and Ledden returning to present along with future presenter Ortis Deley and special guest presenter Stephen Gately of Boyzone. This special was dedicated to a series of music performances (hence the title) and was the first edition to be broadcast in widescreen.

One of the last features was L&K Castaway, a spin-off of the BBC reality show Castaway 2000. Each week, six children would spend four days on a remote Scottish island, learning how to survive, among other skills. Points were earned through passing various tasks, and were lost if contestants entered the "Temptation Hut", which contained various modern electrical appliances.

## Overview

Live & Kicking began on 2 October 1993 and saw the introduction of presenters Andi Peters, Emma Forbes and John Barrowman. Trev and Simon also joined them and provided the comedy for the show; both had also been on the former show Going Live! with Forbes. Two leprechaun puppets made their debut in 1995, both of which would later be named in a viewers' competition as 'Sage and Onion'. Both Mr Sage and Mr Onion were created by Darryl Worbey Studios and were operated by Don Austen and John Eccleston, had previously been the puppeteers of the wolves 'Bro & Bro' on ITV's What's Up Doc?

The computer game for the 1995 series was called Snuffle the Truffles and involved viewers guiding a pig character around a pigpen eating truffles, whilst Trev and Simon invited two guests to review videos in the Video Galleon. The last show before the programme went on a summer break in 1996 saw Peters and Forbes leave the show. The programme returned in September 1996 with the introduction of new presenters Zoë Ball and Jamie Theakston, and an array of new features.

Its return in 1997 saw the replacement of the white set with a new one that maintained the same shape and layout, but was curvier and larger. This coincided with the show moving into the larger Studio 6. This series also saw the introduction of Ben Ward, Richard Webb and Gerard Foster (known as Ben, Gez and Rich) of The Cheese Shop who took over the comedy from 'Trev and Simon'. The computer game for this series became Grabbit Rabbit which involved guiding 'Warren the Rabbit' down a course collecting carrots whilst dodging obstacles such as fences and bushes. Ball later said in an interview that Blake Harrison of The Inbetweeners had told her that he had once been a player on Grabbit Rabbit when he was younger.

In September 1998 Live & Kicking began with the leprechaun Mr Onion being temporarily written out of the show after supposedly being swept down the plughole in the bath. This was done intentionally as puppeteer John Eccleston was in Australia filming for Farscape and would not be available. To compensate for Eccleston's absence, a new leprechaun puppet was added called 'Shamrock' (voiced by Rebecca Nagan of Rosie and Jim fame). On 3 October 1998, future Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe also appeared in the audience during The Hot Seat item where he proceeded to ask The Chuckle Brothers a question. The final edition before the programme went on a summer break also saw the departure of Ball and Theakston as hosts and featured them both in The Hot Seat being interviewed by Michael Parkinson about their time on the show. This episode later went on to win a Children's BAFTA in November 1999.

Live & Kicking returned in September 1999 and saw the introduction of new presenters Steve Wilson and Emma Ledden. New features were added however unlike previous series, many of them failed to last and were continuously replaced. It also saw leprechaun Mr Onion return, however Shamrock remained meaning the show now had three leprechaun puppets. A new comedy duo called Supergirly were also introduced from January 2000 to fill the gap left by 'Ben, Gez and Rich' who had quit the show the previous series. Supergirly, which consisted of Louise McClatchy and Jai Simeone, (known as Lou and Jai) would feature in sketches throughout the morning as BBC make-up artists who were rude to the guests.

October 2000 saw a number of major changes to the show. The set was entirely revamped with a new layout, new titles were added along with a new arrangement of the theme tune. Mr Blobby, The Leprechauns, Supergirly, Renoir and Mitch had also been removed from the show and unlike previous series, there were now four presenters instead of two: Katy Hill, Ortis Deley, Trey Farley and Sarah Cawood. The programme also saw the introduction of gunge based games. A new game was also introduced on the roof of BBC Television Centre called Sacrifice Your Family which Cawood hosted that put two families against each other in various games.

From 21 April 2001, Live & Kicking began broadcasting from BBC Scotland in Glasgow and saw Farley, Cawood and Deley joined by Heather Suttie who replaced Hill. The last show on 15 September 2001 saw many of the old features and presenters return, including leprechauns Mr Sage and Mr Onion, who acknowledged in the final few minutes of the show that they were the longest serving presenters of the show. The final edition ended with a montage of the series' best moments over a live performance of the Steps song "It's The Way You Make Me Feel".

## Demise and replacement

The Ball and Theakston era was considered to be when Live & Kicking was at its peak in popularity. After their final show on 17 April 1999, they were replaced by new presenters Emma Ledden and Steve Wilson on 25 September 1999. Ledden and Wilson did not know each other at the start of the series, and so there was none of the interaction between them, as seen between Ball and Theakston. Additionally, SMTV Live which broadcast opposite on ITV was slowly becoming more popular, and gaining the audience the BBC was losing. After just one series, Ledden and Wilson's contracts were not renewed.

Wilson later said that they were dropped just as they were starting to form a relationship, and that Ant & Dec, presenters of SMTV Live, had the edge over them as they had known each other much longer. Ledden had already been dropped when Wilson went through several meetings with the BBC. He decided it was better to leave after one good series, rather than do a second "lame" series, and went on to appear in rival SMTV Live's 100th show, in the Friends skit, 'Chums'. When Live & Kicking returned on 7 October 2000, it was completely revamped, with brand new titles and a line-up of four presenters.

However, this did nothing to increase viewing figures, and the chemistry between the presenters was even less apparent. It was decided not to end the show in April and replace it with a summer show, because the replacement FBi had lost even more viewers for the BBC. The show continued until 15 September 2001 after a move to Glasgow where the summer show had normally been filmed. Just before the move it was announced it would be the final series. The principal reason given for the decision was the increasing loss of viewers to SMTV Live, which had a similar format and was more successful. Live and Kicking was replaced by The Saturday Show, fronted by Dani Behr and Joe Mace, which was shown all year round until September 2003 when it began an Autumn-Spring/Summer loop with Dick and Dom in da Bungalow.

Live & Kicking was featured in the BBC's It Started with Swap Shop programme in 2006, in which Noel Edmonds interviewed the first pair of presenters, Andi Peters and Emma Forbes, about their time on the show.

## Production

For the first four series, Live & Kicking broadcast from TC 7 at BBC Television Centre however as of Series 5, it moved next door into TC 6 where it gained a larger set due to it being a larger studio. On 14 April 2001, the final show from TC 6 at BBC Television Centre was broadcast before the show moved to 'Studio A' in BBC Scotland the following week, which at the time, was based on Queen Margaret Drive, Glasgow. It then remained there until the end of its run.

Studio A at Queen Margaret Drive has since been demolished following the BBC's move to new studios at Pacific Quay in 2007. Property developer David Wilson Homes are currently building new homes called The Botanics on the site of the old Live & Kicking studio.

Studios TC 6 and TC 7 at BBC Television Centre also suffered a similar fate in 2015 when they too were demolished in the restructure of the building. As such, none of the studios used by Live & Kicking exist anymore.

## After Live & Kicking

On Friday 16 November 2001, two months after the show had finished, parts of the old Live & Kicking set from Series 8 were resurrected and reused as part of BBC Scotland's regional studio set for BBC Children in Need. In an attempt to disguise the set's former use, all traces of L&K branding were removed and replaced with Children In Need logos and throughout the course of the evening, the old gunge tank, beanbag seating area and performance stage were reused one more time.

In 2004, former presenters Katy Hill and Trey Farley, who had presented the show together in Series 8, went on to marry each other at a register office in Surrey before flying to Tuscany to seal their marriage. They later had two children together- a daughter called 'Kaya Skye' born in 2006 and a son called 'Akira' born in 2007.

In 2009, Zoë Ball and Jamie Theakston who had presented the programme together between 1996 and 1999, were reunited to present a new game show for Channel 5 called Britain's Best Brain'' which ran from 28 October to 16 December 2009.

## Transmissions

BBC children's TV series, from 1993

1990s British children's television series

2000s British children's television series

British television shows featuring puppetry


Aula Magna (Central University of Venezuela)

The Aula Magna is an auditorium at the Central University of Venezuela. It is located within the University City of Caracas, next to the University's main library building. The hall was designed by the Venezuelan architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva in the 1940s and built by the Danish company Christiani & Nielsen from 1952–53. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in November 2000 for being artistically and architecturally significant. The most notable feature of the hall is its acoustic 'clouds', which serve both aesthetic and practical functions. They are an element of the hall's design which contributed to the science of interior space acoustics, though the building exterior is also architecturally significant.

The Aula Magna has been named the "most important auditorium" at the university. This is in part because of practicality: it is the largest capacity auditorium, being able to hold approximately 2,700 people with removable seats. However, it is also significant because of the academic, artistic, and political events which have taken place within it. Some of these events have been of great importance for the country and some have been part of historical movements. In present-day Caracas, the hall has been a site of political controversy, as well as suffering from a lack of maintenance funds.

The current director of the hall is Trina Medina, with the assistant director Rosario Silva Prieto.

## Construction

When the University City was commissioned in 1943, a committee was formed to analyse planning options. As well as choosing the location near Central Caracas, the committee also recommended basing the plan for the campus on similar models, including Leopold Rother's "urban project" at the recently opened National University of Colombia in Bogotá.

Designs for the central campus complex were begun in 1944, with architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva drawing up early studies and an outline plan. In the next few years, the medical complex at the university was built, causing the design to undergo "substantial changes" in 1949. The final design was complete by 1952. The ability to make changes to the plans was due in part to Venezuela's economic prosperity and in part to Villanueva's accommodating personality. Of his works during this period, the Aula Magna is considered groundbreaking. Villanueva was capable of adapting his work, while remaining true to his Modernist principles, and was open to changing designs as ideas for the construction evolved. In keeping with the theme of the project, Villanueva's designs include unconventional features that reflect the artistic nature, such as describing buildings not as objects but as "movements" (of which the Aula Magna is IV). The Aula Magna and Plaza Cubierta were placed at the centre of the campus project, as the culmination of its other elements.

The contract for the construction of the Aula Magna was given to the company Christiani & Nielsen, starting on November 28, 1952, and with its end date set as March 31, 1953; that is, the work had to be completed in only 4 months. The hall was finished on time, as demanded by the military dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez. It was the main building of the Synthesis of the Arts project for the university, a campus creation and redesign carried out by Villanueva. The hall was dedicated and opened on December 3, 1953, with a small religious ceremony, but officially inaugurated on March 2, 1954, with the opening of the 10th Inter-American Conference.

In an apocryphal event, when Villanueva first entered the completed hall and saw the freshly painted acoustic clouds, he threw his arms up and shouted that it was tremendous. Villanueva's collaboration with Alexander Calder, the North American artist and engineer who designed and created the hall's famous 'Floating Clouds', would begin a long working relationship between the pair, though Calder only saw the completed hall once, in 1955.

## Specifications

### Acoustics

#### Nubes de Calder

In the 1980s, the acoustics engineer Leo Beranek, who contributed to the project, ranked the hall in the world's top five concert halls for its acoustics. It is so ranked thanks to the 1953 Flying Saucers or Floating Clouds artwork developed by Alexander Calder, a system that combines technology and art. These structures were installed on the ceiling under the supervision of the American firm Bolt, Beranek and Newman, and adjusted while an orchestra played on stage to calibrate the acoustics and make sure the quality remained consistent throughout the hall. The clouds are the most prominent example of the philosophy of the project to combine art and thought as well as function.

The clouds were not originally intended for the interior of the hall. Calder was working on a structure for outside in the Plaza Cubierta; when he became aware of how complex the project was, he suggested integrating his panels into the space of the room with "an artistic, decorative and acoustic purpose". This was a fortunate idea, because at the same time as Calder's suggestion, the American company was viewing the hall's original designs, and noted that the shape of the structure would detrimentally affect the acoustics unless it had extensive panelling. The design has given its inspiration to other venues, including an opera hall in China. The problem-solving function of the panelling was also an influence in the development of interior space acoustics. The panels serve a variety of purposes, with some absorbing sound, some projecting it, and some magnifying it.

Each panel, or cloud, comprises a steel frame containing two pieces of 1⁄2-inch (13 mm) thick laminated wood secured together; the largest cloud has an area of 860 square feet (80 m2) and a weight of approximately 2.5 short tons (2.3 t). The clouds are between 4 and 8 inches (100 and 200 mm) thick, and in total there are 31 panels: 22 on the ceiling, 5 on the right side wall and 4 on the left side wall. To position the clouds, 3⁄8 inch (9+1⁄2 mm) metal cables suspend them from the ceiling of the room, giving them the necessary inclination and height. The real ceiling of the room is 9.8 feet (3 m) above a false plaster ceiling which supports the panelling and facilitates adjustment of lighting systems and the support mechanisms of the "clouds". There are also ladders to allow people to climb through the clouds. A fiberglass sheet was installed above the panels, to reduce echo and sound transfer time, and optimize the acoustics for speech. It is possible to remove this sheet for musical concerts.

In terms of artistic qualities, the art critic Phyllis Tuchman noted that the clouds are "colorfully curving and thus archetypically 'Latin American'" but were designed by one of the few non-Latin Americans working on the project, making them "paradoxical" but still "expressing the region's 'lyricism'", as well as "resembl[ing] clouds scattered across a night sky [...] [w]ith the hall darkened" and making those who "[enter] the auditorium when it's illuminated by houselights [...] able to feel as if they have entered a multihued, three-dimensional abstract painting". Tuchman also noted that, when asked, Calder readily named his favorite work as the clouds, though they are less remembered within his oeuvre than many of his other works. The critics Helen Gyger and Patricio del Real write that "the Aula Magna's interior [...] represents the high-point of Villanueva's interest in the synthesis of the arts".

In UNESCO's World Heritage listing of the campus, the Clouds are named specifically.

#### Other elements

The 'Floating Clouds' are not the only element that helps to provide the characteristic sound quality to the Aula Magna. Within the auditorium most of the elements and materials are designed in favor of acoustics and durability. The seats exemplify this. They are made from the wool of either Chilean or Australian sheep (sources contradict) and were woven in England with a stitched furrow, have leather arms, and have seat cushions that automatically retract and are perforated on the bottom. This design gives the seats the quality of counteracting sound variations, both when empty and fully occupied.

Another element is that all the doors in the room are acoustically designed and double-layered (internal and external); on the parterre level the internal doors are made of perforated metal and filled with an insulator, while the external ones are made of wood, creating a vacuum between them that prevents both the exit of sound from the hall and excludes external noise. On the balcony level, the doors function in the same way, though both the internal and external doors are made of wood. There is also a folded wooden canopy positioned eight meters above the stage to further soften sound.

The original design of the hall included aisle carpets made of cashmere wool, which also helped the acoustics. However, during renovations in the 1990s, the carpets were replaced with ones made from synthetic material.

### Lighting systems

The lighting is versatile, having two main systems (incandescent and fluorescent), side lighting bulbs, and emergency lamps. It also has the original alternative lighting system of bulbs above the clouds that illuminate the ceiling and highlight the color of the panels. This lighting also has a series of instruments to produce lighting effects, including spotlights, reflectors, and projectors. The former main lighting console was a duplicate of a lighting organ, created in England by Strand Lighting, which adapted the keyboard of an organ to operate as a lighting control console. By playing different combinations of the organ keys, it is possible to create a whole light show. Seventeen of these were made by request for halls around the world, though some Caracas reporters state there were only two.

In 2010, the hall installed a new lighting system, donated by the US Embassy in Caracas, with a console produced by the company Electronic Theatre Controls. It became the third theatre building in Caracas to have the technology, which was state-of-the-art. In spite of the new addition, the original organ technology was still functional in 2017.

### Structure and facade

The architectural style of the Aula Magna is inspired by the classic Greco-Roman theatre, with a 1/4-circle structure and a fan-shaped ceiling, designed like an amphitheater or conch shell. On its exterior is a 43-meter truss, which was inspired by Le Corbusier's unrealised designs for the Palace of Soviets. The hall is an integral part of the larger Plaza Cubierta space. The building forms a main part of the view of the Plaza Cubierta, but the entrances are only visible from within the square itself; it is also written that as "[s]een from the Aula Magna, all the spaces and buildings that [comprise] the [Plaza Cubierta] expand, starting from the solidity of the main piece". It also includes designs that were innovative for the time, such as the suspended balcony, an orchestra pit, and the large and open proscenium. Additionally, it is not only a building but "an interior space within a larger interior-exterior space", placing it inseparably within its confines in the central complex, and "irreplaceable". A study published in 1955 by the Museum of Modern Art that looked at Latin American architecture also noted the hall was "covered but only partially enclosed".

The parterre level of the hall has seven main entrances, along with two emergency exits, as well as 1722 seats divided into 6 blocks. The upper floor is divided into 3 balconies, with the left side balcony having 391 seats, the right side balcony having 390 seats, and the central balcony having 193 (of which 13 seats belong to the Box of Honor and are restricted). In addition, the hall has numerous removable seats for convenience.

If the original plans are taken as final, then the Aula Magna was never completed. This creates some incongruous features of the hall, including that the doors that are suspended on the sides of the stage would have been raised by hydraulic jacks, and that the space that today is the basement Art Gallery was intended to be a bar area and contain large bathrooms for the audience. Calder also wanted the clouds to be movable, to allow for different acoustic experiences, but they are not.

In the corridor of the Aula Magna building — a circular corridor running around the hall, with two levels of ramps following the curve and one artistic central cuboid staircase — there are many works of art. In the square outside is the sculpture "Pastor de Nubes", by Jean Arp. It is also surrounded by murals by Mateo Manaure, Victor Vasarely and Pascual Navarro [es], and other sculptures. The Aula Magna is within an intricate system of walkways, being part of the Plaza Cubierta and connected to other buildings in the central complex (the University President's office, the Sala de Conciertos, and the library), each by several distinct routes.

## Events

It was in the hall, during its inauguration at the Inter-American Conference it hosted, that "three thousand leaders and delegates" of the Americas signed a historical resolution declaring Communism a threat to world peace. Conversely, in his first visit to Venezuela, in 1959 after the success of the communist Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro spoke at the hall.

There have also been famous artistic performances. Leonard Bernstein performed at the hall in 1957, saying that it "was the best [hall] in which I conducted in South America. After the concert I told the reporters that the sound is excellent on stage. I would like to be able to take that part of the hall back to New York for the Philharmonic". Montserrat Caballe has sung in the hall, and Pablo Neruda recited his poetry in it.

The theatre company "Palo de Agua", operated by Michel Hausmann, was based in the hall until at least 2013. Hausmann, from a family with a history of opposition to Venezuelan presidents Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, explained that they were not allowed to perform in any of Caracas' main theatres because of the restriction and censorship of artistic expression in Venezuela, describing the hall as "one of the last 'free spaces' to do theatre" since the government took control of all other theatres that seat more than 500 people. One of the company's productions of Jesus Christ Superstar in the hall, on March 7, 2010, was attacked as a political campaign of intimidation against the group by masked assailants with tear gas before the show, harming the actors.

Graduation ceremonies for both UCV and other universities are held in the hall, though to some controversy, with citizens and students saying that the use of the hall should be limited to performances and for the traditional ceremony of UCV students only. In 2018, one student political party described the leasing of the hall to another university "commercialisation" of the heritage site.

The hall is also used for student addresses, and in February 2019 the hall was used by then-UCV student president Rafaela Requesens when rallying students to participate in protests during the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis. She opened her speech by describing the hall, saying "This is a space of ideas, of knowledge, of plurality of thought, of freedom, of democracy, of justice. Young people always give a message of hope, today of reflection."

## Preservation

Almost fifty years after its construction, the Aula Magna was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the year 2000 — as part of the central campus area but also with special consideration for the interior of the hall, which individually has protected status. UNESCO had several concerns about the preservation of the hall, as well as the rest of the campus, due to the growing number of students, the age of the mosaics and concrete, and the area being "vulnerable to social unrest". It did ensure that a "monitoring program" was in place to help protect the site. This monitoring program is called Copred, and is made up of student volunteers and preservation experts.

UNESCO's fears were subsequently realized; during a protest in July 2013 a bus was set on fire within the square outside the hall and damaged one of the adjacent murals, an iconic piece by Venezuelan Oswaldo Vigas. Students and Copred opened a campaign, UCV SOS, and managed to raise money to restore it, with donors including Banco Mercantil and Telefónica. However, it has been said by the Financial Times that restricted funds are a greater threat to the preservation of the hall and artworks, both from the economic downturn due to the Crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela and from the Chávez and then Maduro governments defunding universities and not prioritizing independent culture. Despite these setbacks, in 2015 an art historian and industrial designer noted that the hall "has withstood time and the general negligence that has taken over the majority of the university campus". Copred regularly lead guided tours around the hall in order to raise money for its preservation.

In 2015, it was estimated that the cost of restoring the Aula Magna alone was, in US dollars, \$392,919 at the official rate of the time, or \$2,943 on the black market. Cecilia García Arocha, the UCV rector, said that since being made a World Heritage Site there had been no funds given to the university to maintain it. Only 6% of the university's funds go towards grounds upkeep, which the site is sectioned under. In late 2014, Copred refitted a roof slab of the Plaza Cubierta by the auditorium, which had been damaged on August 11 that year, and waterproofed it at the same time. They also undertook work on a ramp of the hall in December 2014. In late 2017, the organisation reported refitting the pipes of the Aula Magna in the works it was overseeing, as they had not been uncovered before and caused flooding in the hall.

The university also aims to preserve tradition of the hall as well, with sources saying that its "continued reason for being" is to see new generations of students graduate each year.

## See also

- University City of Caracas
- Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex — home to another theatre in Caracas with artistic acoustic panelling

University concert hall in Caracas, Venezuela