Globe âș Birds âș Common swift
Common swift migration Apus apus
Press ⶠto play the year. Glow: GBIF records per month, adjusted for observer effort. Lines: tracked individuals (Movebank).
.jpg){kind=link}
| Scientific name | Apus apus |
|---|---|
| Wingspan | 40 cm |
| IUCN status | Least concern |
| Records mapped | 2,286,766 (GBIF) |
| GPS / geolocator tracks | none with an open licence yet |
Facts from Wikidata Q25377 (CC0).
When does the common swift arrive in the UK?
A summer visitor in the records: sightings jump in early May and fall away after mid August.
Bars: this speciesâ share of all UK bird records in GBIF (CC0/CC BY), by month, scaled to the peak month. Based on 362,318 UK records. Weekly counts from the GBIF occurrence search API (country=GB). Dates are read from records, not from a survey, so treat them as a guide.
Migration in the data
2,286,766 GBIF records (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 licences only) are mapped here, in 1.41° grid cells, month by month.
In Europe and Africa, the centre of the records (adjusted for observer effort) is furthest north in July (about 49°N) and furthest south in December (about 14°S).
More than half of the effort-adjusted signal there is south of the Equator in: January, February, November, December.
Month by month: centre of records in Europe and Africa
| Month | Centre (latitude) | South of the Equator |
|---|---|---|
| January | 14°S | 75% |
| February | 3°S | 58% |
| March | 26°N | 13% |
| April | 37°N | 2% |
| May | 45°N | 0% |
| June | 47°N | 0% |
| July | 49°N | 0% |
| August | 48°N | 0% |
| September | 39°N | 5% |
| October | 15°N | 36% |
| November | 11°S | 76% |
| December | 14°S | 78% |
Tracked birds
No openly licensed (CC0 / CC BY) tracking data package for this species was found in the Movebank Data Repository yet, so only records are shown.
About the common swift
The common swift 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.
From the Wikipedia article âCommon swiftâ (revision 1361442305), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sources
GBIF occurrence records, licence CC0 1.0 or CC BY 4.0 only, observations only (no specimens), filtered with: taxonKey=5228676&license=CC0_1_0&license=CC_BY_4_0&occurrenceStatus=PRESENT&hasGeospatialIssue=false&basisOfRecord=HUMAN_OBSERVATION&basisOfRecord=MACHINE_OBSERVATION&basisOfRecord=OBSERVATION. Monthly queries: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec. GBIF.org (22 October 2026) occurrence data accessed via the GBIF API; a GBIF download DOI is still to be added. Contributing datasets.