Little Swift (Apus affinis)
About the Little Swift
The little swift (Apus affinis) is a small species of swift found in Africa and southwestern Asia, and are vagrants and local breeders in southern Europe. They are found both in urban areas and at rocky cliffs where they build nests in a way typical of all members of the order Apodiformes. The genus name Apus is Latin for a swift, thought by the ancients to be a type of swallow without feet (from Ancient Greek α, a, "without", and πούς, pous, "foot"). The Latin specific affinis means similar to or related to, but in this case the species that the little swift supposedly resembles is not clear from the description. A population formerly considered to be an eastern subspecies of little swift is now separated as a distinct species, the house swift (Apus nipalensis).
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 131 recordings for this species: 1 CC BY-NC-ND. 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 Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Common SwiftApus apusrecording
- Pallid SwiftApus pallidusrecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.