Brown-backed Needletail (Hirundapus giganteus)
About the Brown-backed Needletail
The brown-backed needletail (Hirundapus giganteus), or brown needletail, is a large swift. These birds have very short legs which they use only mainly for clinging to vertical surfaces. They never settle voluntarily on the ground and spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their beaks. These swifts are resident breeders in hill forests in southern India and southeast Asia, extending to the Greater Sunda islands of Indonesia and Palawan in the southern Philippines. They build their nests in rock crevices in cliffs, laying 3-5 eggs. The flight is impressively fast, even compared to other swifts.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 2 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 Cambodia, India in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Other birds you can hear here
- Alexandrine ParakeetPsittacula eupatriarecording
- Ashy DrongoDicrurus leucophaeusrecording
- Asian Green Bee-eaterMerops orientalisrecording
- Asian KoelEudynamys scolopaceusrecording
- Asian Palm SwiftCypsiurus balasiensisrecording
- Banded Bay CuckooCacomantis sonneratiirecording
These are the birds recorded alongside it, not close relatives — the site holds no other member of its genus or family yet.