Cypsiurus parvus
Silhouette: Aviceda (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The African palm swift (Cypsiurus parvus) is a small swift. It is very similar to the Asian palm swift, Cypsiurus balasiensis, and was formerly considered to be the same species. The Malagasy palm swift was also recently split from this species. This is a common species with a very wide distribution which faces no obvious threats and may be increasing in numbers as a result of the cultivation of the exotic Washington palm, so the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern".
This 16 cm long species is mainly pale brown in colour. It has long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang. The body is slender, and the tail is long and deeply forked, although it is usually held closed. The call is a loud, shrill scream. Sexes are similar, and young birds differ mainly in their shorter tails. Palm swifts have very short legs which they use only for clinging to vertical surfaces, since swifts never settle voluntarily on the ground.
The African palm swift is native to Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brazzaville | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo | |
| 2 | Maputo | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 3 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 4 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 5 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 7 | Abidjan | 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire | |
| 8 | N'Djamena | 🇹🇩 Chad | |
| 9 | Lusaka | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 10 | Zanzibar City | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report an African Palm-Swift sighting in Lusaka on a given day, based on 146 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 9th most-seen of the 87 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and September
In those months about 70% of wildlife watchers report an African Palm-Swift in Lusaka on a given day, against about 30% in March and May–June, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most African Palm-Swift sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
9th of 31
Of the 31 cities where we can rate African Palm-Swift sightings, Lusaka ranks 9th at about 50%. The best odds are in Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo, about 90%), Maputo (Mozambique, about 70%) and Mombasa (Kenya, about 70%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the African Palm-Swift is recorded against all the birds logged in Lusaka (146 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.
