African Black Swift

Apus barbatus (Sclater, PL, 1866)

16–18 cmLength43 gWeight

The African black swift (Apus barbatus), also known as the African swift or black swift, is a medium-sized bird in the swift family.

Busiest months: November · Most records: South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania

Least Concern

Where and when it's recorded

African Black Swift has been recorded at 268 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 18 countries and regions.

Records by month Southern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

Strandfontein WTPSouth Africa275 records
Kirstenbosch Botanical GardenSouth Africa271 records
Rooi-ElsSouth Africa242 records

More places

Rondevlei NRSouth Africa200 records
De Hoop Nature ReserveSouth Africa161 records
Walter Sisulu National Botanical GardenSouth Africa152 records
Lake Nakuru NPKenya135 records
Zambezi River near Victoria FallsZimbabwe123 records
Rietvlei Wetlands ReserveSouth Africa111 records
West Coast NPSouth Africa100 records

Countries and regions with the most records

South Africa Kenya Tanzania Zimbabwe Uganda Lesotho Zambia Malawi

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The African black swift (Apus barbatus), also known as the African swift or black swift, is a medium-sized bird in the swift family. It breeds in Africa discontinuously from Liberia, Cameroon, Zaire, Uganda and Kenya southwards to South Africa. The "black swifts" of Madagascar and the Comoros are either taken as two subspecies of the African black swift, or otherwise deemed a full species, the Malagasy black swift.

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