Alpine Swift

What the Alpine Swift sounds like

Recorded by tsilianidis saky · Flight call · Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace, Greece · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via xeno-canto

When to see the Alpine Swift

One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 9 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is April, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Alpine Swift

The map shades 92 countries with regular records, and 17 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Recorded as a rare visitor in Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Djibouti, Eritrea, Barbados, Bermuda, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Benin, China, Guernsey, Iceland, Kosovo.

About the Alpine Swift

The alpine swift 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. They have very short legs which are used for clinging to vertical surfaces. Like most swifts, they never settle voluntarily on the ground, spending most of their lives in the air living on the insects they catch in their beaks.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Mottled SwiftTachymarptis aequatorialisThe mottled swift is a species of bird in the swift family, Apodidae.