Aerodramus unicolor
Silhouette: Aviceda (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
The Indian Swiftlet or Indian Edible-Nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus unicolor) is a small swift. It is a common resident colonial breeder in the hills of Sri Lanka and southwest India. The half-cup nest is built on a vertical surface, often in a cave. The male swift uses thick saliva to construct the white, shiny nest into which two eggs are laid.
The relatively tasteless nests are harvested, and mixed with chicken, spices, and other flavours as bird's nest soup, a supposed aphrodisiac. This 12 cm long species is mainly dark brown above and paler brown below. It has swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang. The body is slender, and the tail is short and only slightly indented.
Both sexes and young birds are similar. The Indian swiftlet has very short legs which it uses only for clinging to vertical surfaces, since swifts never settle voluntarily on the ground. These swifts spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their bills, and they drink on the wing.
Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp, Birds of India ISBN 0-691-04910-6 Chantler, Paul and Driessens, Gerald, Swifts ISBN 1-873403-83-6 Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Mudumalai National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 4 | Horton Plains National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 5 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Eravikulam National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 10 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 11 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Kozhikode | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Thiruvananthapuram | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Thrissur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Kochi | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Kollam | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Mysuru | 🇮🇳 India |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an Indian Swiftlet sighting in Wilpattu National Park on a given day, based on 37 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 113th most-seen of the 169 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September and October
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report an Indian Swiftlet in Wilpattu National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January, March and July–August, the lowest months. Those are among Wilpattu National Park's wettest months, with about 170 mm of rain a month against 40 mm in February.
Between 3 and 6 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Indian Swiftlet 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.
11th of 11
Of the 11 parks where we can rate Indian Swiftlet sightings, Wilpattu National Park ranks 11th at about 10%. The best odds are in Sinharaja Forest Reserve (Sri Lanka, about 30%), Mudumalai National Park (India, about 30%) and Udawalawe National Park (Sri Lanka, about 30%).
Same family: Apodidae
The closest relatives of the Indian Swiftlet that you can see in Wilpattu National Park (family Apodidae, Swifts) are Asian Palm-Swift (about 30%) and Little Swift (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Indian Swiftlet is recorded against all the birds logged in Wilpattu National Park (37 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.
