Chimney Swift
FAMILY: Apodidae
Genus: Chaetura
Species: pelagica
FAMILY: Apodidae
Genus: Chaetura
Species: pelagica
Conservation Status
US: Near Threatened
Canada: Threatened
US: Near Threatened
Canada: Threatened
Chimney swifts are a very small bird
with long pointy wings and a
swallow-like silhouette, but not a forked tail.
Called "flying cigars", they look like a cigar with wings in the sky.
Aerial insectivores, Chimney swifts enhance our summer skies with their playful swooping flight and chittering vocalizations.
|
Swifts are highly social little birds; hundreds, even thousands, will roost together, entering a chamber in a large swirling mass.
They often fly with swallows and purple martins which have forked tails, swifts do not. Chimney swifts are actually more closely related to hummingbirds. Have the largest (12.5”) wingspan compared to their little (5”) body, of any bird. Can reach flying speeds over 100 mph. Spending most of their day on the wing, they will fly more than 10,000 miles in a year. Unlike most birds, chimney swifts are unable to perch; they can only cling to to vertical surfaces. They eat, drink, bathe, and gather twigs all while in flight. 
|
Swifts will reunite with the same mate each year at the same nesting site.
They affix their unusual nests made of dead twigs and a unique glue-like saliva to walls of chimneys. Can only eat by catching insects with a wide gaping mouth while flying. Chimney swifts spend all day flying and eating all types of flying insects. One pair and their nestlings will eat more than 12,000 insects per day. Chimney swifts winter in South America: Chile, Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador. Where are the Chimney swifts right now? Click on the eBird Range Map button below to see where the birds are today as they migrate north:
|
Swifts rely on us for artificial structures for roosting and nesting.
