AI overview
The Common Swift is a small, fast-flying bird found across Europe and Asia that spends most of its life airborne, hunting insects while in flight. It matters because it serves as an indicator of healthy insect populations and is experiencing population declines in many regions, making it important for understanding environmental changes.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Parent taxon
- Apus
- Award
- Bird of the Year
- Mass
- +3.5
- Image
- Common Swift 2025 07 18 02 (cropped).jpg
Show 7 more facts
- P105
- species
- P141
- Least Concern
- P183
- Sela Pass
- P1889
- swallow
- P9566
Article
Common Swift chicks 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").