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Indian Swiftlet (Aerodramus unicolor)

Indian Swiftlet
Photo: Mike Prince from Bangalore, India via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 — free for commercial reuse.

About the Indian Swiftlet

The Indian Swiftlet or Indian Edible-Nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus unicolor) is a small swift. It is a common resident colonial breeder in the hills of Sri Lanka and southwest India. The half-cup nest is built on a vertical surface, often in a cave. The male swift uses thick saliva to construct the white, shiny nest into which two eggs are laid. The relatively tasteless nests are harvested, and mixed with chicken, spices, and other flavours as bird's nest soup, a supposed aphrodisiac. This 12 cm long species is mainly dark brown above and paler brown below. It has swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang. The body is slender, and the tail is short and only slightly indented.

Source: Indian swiftlet on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA
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No audio on this page yet

We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 8 recordings for this species: 7 CC BY-NC-ND · 1 CC BY-NC-SA. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.

As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.

Listed as recorded in India in the xeno-canto catalogue.