Tachymarptis melba
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The alpine swift (Tachymarptis melba) is a species of swift found in Africa, southern Europe, and Asia. They breed in mountains from southern Europe to the Himalayas. Like common swifts, they are migratory; the southern European population winters further south in southern Africa. They have very short legs which are used for clinging to vertical surfaces. Like most swifts, they never settle voluntarily on the ground, spending most of their lives in the air living on the insects they catch in their beaks.
The alpine swift was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the swifts in the genus Hirundo and coined the binomial name Hirundo melba. Linnaeus specified the type locality as Gibraltar. Linnaeus based his account on "The greatest martin or swift" that had been described and illustrated in 1743 by the English naturalist George Edwards in his book A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. Edwards's specimen had been shot on the rock of Gibraltar. The alpine swift is now placed together with the mottled swift in the genus Tachymarptis that was introduced in 1922 by the South African zoologist... Wikipedia →
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an Alpine Swift sighting in Cape Town on a given day, based on 234 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 90th most-seen of the 196 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July and November–April
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Alpine Swift in Cape Town on a given day, against under 5% in May–June and August–October, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Alpine Swift sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
14th of 40
Of the 40 cities where we can rate Alpine Swift sightings, Cape Town ranks 14th at about 10%. The best odds are in Fez (Morocco, about 70%), Istanbul (Turkey, about 40%) and Athens (Greece, about 30%).
Same family: Apodidae
The closest relatives of the Alpine Swift that you can see in Cape Town (family Apodidae, Swifts) are Little Swift (about 10%), African Swift (about 10%) and White-rumped Swift (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Alpine Swift is recorded against all the birds logged in Cape Town (234 verified sightings), 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.
