8 Fascinating Swift Bird Facts You Should Know

Chimney Swifts Love to Fly

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Chimney swifts are very fast fliers and spend most of their lives in midair. They eat, drink and mate while flying, only stopping to raise young. They even take their baths in flight by dipping in a water source briefly. It’s estimated they fly more than 500 miles each day.

Chimney Swifts Have a Unique Nickname

Chimney swifts are small birds, only about 5 inches in length, that look somewhat like swallows and are sometimes mixed in with flocks of swallows. They are often referred to as “flying cigars” because they look like fat cigars with wings flying high above us! You may hear the distinctive twittering call of a swift bird before you look up to see it flying above.

Swift Birds Roost in Large Numbers

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Up to 35,000 Vaux’s swifts may gather in one site when roosting.

Chimney Swifts Are Losing Nesting Sites

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Unfortunately chimney swifts are a species of conservation concern.  They originally nested in old tree stumps then wood fence posts.  After eastern forests were cut down and wooden fence posts went to the wayside, they adapted to nesting in chimneys.

Now, however, chimneys are often not included in new buildings and many with chimneys have caps on them so a swift bird cannot enter to nest. There are a number of efforts to provide artificial nesting sites by building chimney swift towers.

Chimney Swifts Are Crafty Builders

One way chimney swifts adapted to habitat loss is using their saliva to stick their nests to houses.

Learn more about swallow nest types and nesting habits.

White-Throated Swifts Are Adaptable

White-throated swifts nest in a wide range of sites, from Death Valley at 180 feet below sea level up to elevations of 11,000 feet.

4 Types of Swift Birds Live in North America

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Four types of swift birds nest in North America. Look for black, Vaux’s and white-throated swifts in the western half of the United States. You can find chimney swifts throughout the eastern and midwestern states and in southern Canada.

Black Swifts Migrate to Spend Winter in Brazil

In 2010, geolocators helped researchers discover black swifts travel 4,000 miles to Brazil each winter. Before that, the birds’ wintering location was unknown.

Sources

• All About Birds – Vaux’s swift
• Wildlife Center of Virginia – Chimney Swifts as Neighbors
• eBird – Black Swift Wintering Grounds Discovered
• National Audubon Society – white-throated swift
• All About Birds – white-throated swift
• Audubon North Carolina