Hirundapus cochinchinensis
Silhouette: Aviceda (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The silver-backed needletail (Hirundapus cochinchinensis) is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It is found in Southeast Asia, Sumatra, Java and Taiwan. It is a vagrant to Christmas Island. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. Wikipedia →
Flight call0:16
Taiwan · 1983
© Jelle Scharringa · XC611446 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 2 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 3 | Cuc Phuong National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 4 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 5 | Namdapha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Taroko National Park | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 7 | Taman Negara National Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 8 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Singapore | 🇸🇬 Singapore |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Silver-backed Needletail sighting in Cat Tien National Park on a given day, based on 109 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 139th most-seen of the 244 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Silver-backed Needletail in Cat Tien National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June to January, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Silver-backed Needletail sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Silver-backed Needletail sightings, Cat Tien National Park has the highest daily chance: about 10%. Next come Khao Yai National Park (Thailand, under 5%) and Cuc Phuong National Park (Vietnam, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Silver-backed Needletail is recorded against all the birds logged in Cat Tien National Park (109 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.
