The Nature LibraryEN·ES
iNat·6642SpeciesAves674 field observations
  1. Animals
  2. ›Chordates
  3. ›Vertebrates
  4. ›Birds
  5. ›Swifts and Hummingbirds
  6. ›Swifts
  7. ›Apus
Plain Swift
Plate 1 of 6. (c) Miguel Arribas, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Miguel Arribas · via iNaturalist

On eBird ↗

Plain Swift

Live sightings near you, the range map, bar charts of when it is seen, and Macaulay Library photos and recordings.

Plain Swift

Apus unicolor

The plain swift (Apus unicolor) is a medium-sized swift. Although this bird is superficially similar to a barn swallow or house martin, it is not related to those passerine species. The resemblances between the groups are due to convergent evolution reflecting similar life styles.

Swifts have very short legs that they use only for clinging to vertical surfaces. They never settle voluntarily on the ground, and spend most of their lives in the air, feeding on insects that they catch in their beaks. They drink on the wing.

Continue reading on Wikipedia
§·

Listen

Looking for field recordings…

§·

Where it lives

Recorded sightings

—

geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.

§·

In the stacks

Searching the stacks…

Every page naming Apus unicolor in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →

This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 6642.