Common Swift (Apus apus)
About the Common Swift
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. Its scientific name Apus is Latin for a swift, thought by the ancients to be a type of swallow with no feet (from Ancient Greek α, a, "without", and πούς, pous, "foot").
A real field recording of the Common Swift. Press play and focus on the rhythm and pitch of each phrase.
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Our streaming copies are mirrored from the original xeno-canto file and transcoded to 96 kbps mono — a modification, so we note it here; the licence for each recording is named in its credit below.
3 recordings on this page · licensed Public Domain / CC0 ×3 · mirrored on this server, free for commercial reuse · recorded in Austria, Belgium, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark and elsewhere · xeno-canto lists 985 recordings for this species in total.
Similar species
- African Black SwiftApus barbatusprofile
- Bates's SwiftApus batesiprofile
- Bradfield's SwiftApus bradfieldiprofile
- Cook's SwiftApus cookiprofile
- Horus SwiftApus horusprofile
- House SwiftApus nipalensisprofile
Species grouped by shared genus, family and range.