Apus apus
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The common swift (Apus apus) is a medium-sized bird, superficially similar to the barn swallow or house martin but somewhat larger, though not stemming from those passerine species, being in the order Apodiformes. The resemblances between the groups are due to convergent evolution, reflecting similar contextual development. The swifts' nearest relatives are the New World hummingbirds and the Southeast Asian treeswifts.
Its scientific name Apus is Latin for a swift, thought by the ancients to be a type of swallow with no feet (from Ancient Greek α, a, "without", and πούς, pous, "foot"). Swifts have very short legs which they use primarily for clinging to vertical surfaces (hence the German name Mauersegler, literally meaning "wall-glider"). They never settle voluntarily on the ground where they would be vulnerable to accidents and predation, and non-breeding individuals may spend up to ten months in continuous flight.
The common swift was one of the many species described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He introduced the binomial name Hirundo apus. The current genus Apus was erected by the Italian naturalist... Wikipedia →
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Common Swift sighting in Tsavo East National Park on a given day, based on 23 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 223rd most-seen of the 345 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December to February
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Swift in Tsavo East National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March to November, the lowest months.
Between 5 and 8 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Swift sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
34th of 65
Of the 65 parks where we can rate Common Swift sightings, Tsavo East National Park ranks 34th at under 5%. The best odds are in Vanoise National Park (France, about 40%), Cévennes National Park (France, about 40%) and Gauja National Park (Latvia, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Apus
The closest relatives of the Common Swift that you can see in Tsavo East National Park (genus Apus, Typical Swifts) are Little Swift (about 40%) 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 Common Swift is recorded against all the birds logged in Tsavo East National Park (23 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.
