Hirundapus giganteus
Silhouette: Aviceda (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The brown-backed needletail (Hirundapus giganteus), or brown needletail, is a large swift. These birds have very short legs which they use only mainly for clinging to vertical surfaces. They never settle voluntarily on the ground and spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their beaks.
These swifts are resident breeders in hill forests in southern India and southeast Asia, extending to the Greater Sunda islands of Indonesia and Palawan in the southern Philippines. They build their nests in rock crevices in cliffs, laying 3-5 eggs. The flight is impressively fast, even compared to other swifts.
The brown-backed needletail is among the largest swifts worldwide, and at 23 cm is bigger than the Alpine swift and the white-throated needletail. It has a similar build to the latter species, with a heavy barrel-like body. They are dark brown except for a white undertail, which extends on to the flanks.
The Hirundapus needletailed swifts get their name from the spined ends of their tail, which is not forked as in the Apus typical swifts. The brown-backed needletail has more prominent tail spines than in other needletail species. Wikipedia →
Call0:17
India · 2026
© Andrew Spencer · XC1075005 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 2 | Taman Negara National Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 3 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Sepilok | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 5 | Cuc Phuong National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 6 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 7 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 8 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 9 | Gunung Leuser National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 10 | Danum Valley Conservation Area | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 11 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 12 | Khao Luang National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 13 | Bali Barat National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 14 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 15 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 16 | Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 17 | Mudumalai National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 18 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 19 | Namdapha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 20 | Khao Sok National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 21 | Doi Inthanon National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 22 | Kinabalu Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thrissur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Thiruvananthapuram | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 5 | Kozhikode | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Singapore | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 7 | Kochi | 🇮🇳 India |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Brown-backed Needletail sighting in Sepilok on a given day, based on 175 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 119th most-seen of the 242 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.
February–May, August–October and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Brown-backed Needletail in Sepilok on a given day, against under 5% in January, June–July and November, the lowest months.
Between 3 and 6 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Brown-backed Needletail sightings with a recorded time, and about half of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
4th of 22
Of the 22 parks where we can rate Brown-backed Needletail sightings, Sepilok ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Khao Yai National Park (Thailand, about 20%), Taman Negara National Park (Malaysia, about 10%) and Periyar National Park (India, about 10%).
Same family: Apodidae
The closest relatives of the Brown-backed Needletail that you can see in Sepilok (family Apodidae, Swifts) are Plume-toed Swiftlet (about 40%), Silver-rumped Needletail (about 30%) and White-nest Swiftlet (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Brown-backed Needletail is recorded against all the birds logged in Sepilok (175 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.
