Swifts
Apodidae
The swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds. They are superficially similar to swallows, but are not closely related to any of the passerine species. Swifts are placed in the order Apodiformes, which they share with hummingbirds. The treeswifts are closely related to the true swifts, but form a separate family, the Hemiprocnidae.
19 branches of this family, most-observed first · about 109 known species
Typical Swifts
genusApus
Chaetura Swifts
genusChaetura
Mottled and Alpine Swifts
genusTachymarptis
Aeronautes Swifts
genusAeronautes
Dark Swiftlets
genusAerodramus
Collared Swifts
genusStreptoprocne
Old World Palm Swifts
genusCypsiurus
White-bellied Swiftlets
genusCollocalia
Typical Needletails
genusHirundapus
Cypseloides Swifts
genusCypseloides
New World Palm Swifts
genusTachornis
Swallow-tailed Swifts
genusPanyptila
Rhaphidura Spinetails
genusRhaphidura
Dark Spinetails
genusTelacanthura
White-rumped Spinetails
genusZoonavena
Short-tailed Spinetails
genusNeafrapus
Papuan and Philippine Spinetails
genusMearnsia
Schoutedenapus
genusSchoutedenapus
Hydrochous
genusHydrochous
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Apodidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 6544.