Collocalia linchi
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In 3 days >90%
The cave swiftlet or linchi swiftlet (Collocalia linchi) is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It is found on the Indonesia islands of Sumatra, Java and Bali. It is a woodland species and nests in caves. The Bornean swiftlet was considered a subspecies, but is now usually considered distinct.
The cave swiftlet was described by the naturalists Thomas Horsfield and Frederic Moore in 1854 under the present binomial name Collocalia linchi. The specific epithet linchi is the Javanese word for a swiftlet. There are four recognised subspecies:
This bird is shiny blackish-brown above with a greenish gloss, including its rump; sometimes looks black and hooded. Chest black; belly to flanks pale grey with fine black speckles at margins. Wing tips are rounded; underwing is black. Tail black, rounded with shallow notch but lacking the white specks found in the very similar glossy swiftlet... Wikipedia →
Call1:08
Indonesia · 2001
© Jelle Scharringa · XC777099 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bali Barat National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yogyakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Jakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 3 | Denpasar | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 4 | Tasikmalaya | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 5 | Malang | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 6 | Semarang | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 7 | Bandung | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 8 | Surabaya | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
Very likely
About 70% of wildlife watchers report a Cave Swiftlet sighting in Bali Barat National Park on a given day, based on 1,058 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 7th most-seen of the 173 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January, March, May, July–September and November
In those months about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Cave Swiftlet in Bali Barat National Park on a given day, against about 50% in June, the lowest month.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Cave Swiftlet sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
Only Bali Barat National Park, in our data
Bali Barat National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Cave Swiftlet sightings: about 70% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Apodidae
The closest relatives of the Cave Swiftlet that you can see in Bali Barat National Park (family Apodidae, Swifts) are White-nest Swiftlet (about 40%), House Swift (about 20%) and Pacific Swift (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Cave Swiftlet is recorded against all the birds logged in Bali Barat National Park (1,058 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
