File:Little_swift,_Apus_affinis,_at_Kruger_National_Park,_South_Africa,_crop.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata facts
Show 13 more facts
- taxon rank
- species
- IUCN conservation status
- Least Concern
- Commons category
- Apus affinis
- taxon name
- Apus affinis
- Commons gallery
- Apus affinis
- litter size
- 1.7
- egg incubation period
- 23
- taxon common name
- Sidintsidindrano
- short name
- A. affinis
- habitat
- grassland
- generation time
- 12.5
- taxon range
- Africa
- external data available at URL
- www.gbif.org/dataset/2c04922c-82dd-4718-ab22-c9772408de9c
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The little swift (Apus affinis) is a small species of swift found in Africa and southwestern Asia, and are vagrants and local breeders in southern Europe. They are found both in urban areas and at rocky cliffs where they build nests in a way typical of all members of the order Apodiformes. The genus name Apus is Latin for a swift, thought by the ancients to be a type of swallow without feet (from Ancient Greek α, a, "without", and πούς, pous, "foot"). The Latin specific affinis means similar to or related to, but in this case the species that the little swift supposedly resembles is not clear from the description. A population formerly considered to be an eastern subspecies of little swift is now separated as a distinct species, the house swift (Apus nipalensis).
Description
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Little Swift” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.