Horus Swift (Apus horus)
About the Horus Swift
The Horus swift (Apus horus) is a small bird in the swift family Apodidae that is found in sub-Saharan Africa. Horus, whose name this bird commemorates, was the ancient Egyptian god of the sun, son of Osiris and Isis. The Horus swift was formally described in 1869 by the German explorer and ornithologist Theodor von Heuglin under the binomial name Cypselus horus. The specific epithet is from Ancient Egyptian mythology: Horus was the god of the sun. This species is now one of 20 swifts placed in the genus Apus that was introduced in 1777 by the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli. The species is treated as monotypic. The subspecies A. h. fuscobrunneus and A. h. toulsoni were formerly recognised but are now considered to be colour morphs of the nominate form.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 9 recordings for this species: 4 CC BY-NC-ND · 4 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 Senegal, South Africa 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.