Tachymarptis melba
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
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 →
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Alpine Swift sighting in South Luangwa National Park on a given day, based on 16 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 219th most-seen of the 257 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Alpine Swift in South Luangwa National Park on a given day, against under 5% in September to July, the lowest months. That is one of South Luangwa National Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 310 mm in January.
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.
34th of 53
Of the 53 parks where we can rate Alpine Swift sightings, South Luangwa National Park ranks 34th at under 5%. The best odds are in Waterberg Plateau Park (Namibia, about 40%), Hohe Tauern National Park (Austria, about 20%) and Cévennes National Park (France, about 20%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Apodidae
The closest relatives of the Alpine Swift that you can see in South Luangwa National Park (family Apodidae, Swifts) are African Palm-Swift (about 30%), Little Swift (about 10%) and Horus 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 South Luangwa National Park (16 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.
