Common Swift

How to identify

Field marks

1. Blackish-brown, with a small white or pale gray chin patch invisible at a distance
2. Long, swept-back wings shaped like a crescent or boomerang
3. Short, forked tail
4. Narrow, sickle-shaped wings longer than the body

Voice

Loud shrieks at two pitches, the higher one given by the female.

Similar species

Barn Swallow

Common Swift is slightly larger than Barn Swallow, with narrow, sickle-shaped wings longer than its body; its calls are shrill shrieks, while the swallow gives unobtrusive twitters.

Western House Martin

Common Swift is slightly larger than Western House Martin, with narrow, sickle-shaped wings longer than its body; its calls are shrill shrieks, while the martin gives unobtrusive twitters.

Where and when it's recorded

Common Swift has been recorded at 2,278 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 137 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Jerusalem Bird ObservatoryIsrael2,136 records
2. Amwell HMWT NRUnited Kingdom1,991 records
3. Titchwell Marsh RSPB ReserveUnited Kingdom1,945 records

Countries and regions with the most records

United KingdomSpainPortugalIsraelGermanyChinaFrancePoland

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 common swift (Apus apus) is a medium-sized bird, superficially similar to the barn swallow or house martin but somewhat larger, though not stemming from those passerine species, being in the order Apodiformes. The resemblances between the groups are due to convergent evolution, reflecting similar contextual development. The swifts' nearest relatives are the New World hummingbirds and the Southeast Asian treeswifts.

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

Questions