Common Swift

Apus apus

The common swift 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. Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this bird was recorded 30,144 times across 58 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

See the Common Swift on the live map

Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 19°C (typically 17 to 23°C, from 44 areas). That holds across 105° of latitude, which suggests its timing follows temperature more than the calendar.

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in Europe ranged from 45°N in April to 58°N in August, about 1,400 km apart.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

Download every area as CSV

Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.