Alpine Swift

How to identify

Field marks

1. Oval white belly patch surrounded by olive-brown
2. Olive-brown upperparts; wings long and pointed, with blacker wingtips
3. White throat, not always clearly visible
4. Short, forked tail and long, swept-back wings

Male, female and young

Juveniles resemble adults but have pale feather edges.

Voice

A prolonged twittering trill.

Similar species

Common Swift

Alpine Swift is much larger, with a wingspan of about 57 cm compared with about 42 cm in Common Swift, and has a white belly and throat.

Where and when it's recorded

Alpine Swift has been recorded at 964 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 94 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Validebağ Korusu – Genel AlanTürkiye954 records
2. RivaTürkiye751 records
3. Gazelle ValleyIsrael655 records

Countries and regions with the most records

SpainTürkiyeIndiaIsraelSouth AfricaGreeceBulgariaPortugal

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 alpine swift (Tachymarptis melba) is a species of swift found in Africa, southern Europe, and Asia. They breed in mountains from southern Europe to the Himalayas. Like common swifts, they are migratory; the southern European population winters further south in southern Africa.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

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