Swifts are placed in the order Apodiformes with hummingbirds. The treeswifts are closely related to the true swifts, but form a separate family, the Hemiprocnidae.

Resemblances between swifts and swallows are due to convergent evolution , reflecting similar life styles based on catching insects in flight.

Taxonomists have long classified swifts and treeswifts as relatives of the hummingbirds , a judgment corroborated by the discovery of the Jungornithidae apparently swift-like hummingbird-relatives and of primitive hummingbirds such as Eurotrochilus.

Traditional taxonomies place the hummingbird family Trochilidae in the same order as the swifts and treeswifts and no other birds ; the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy treated this group as a superorder in which the swift order was called Trochiliformes.

The taxonomy of the swifts is complicated, with genus and species boundaries widely disputed, especially amongst the swiftlets.

Analysis of behavior and vocalizations is complicated by common parallel evolution , while analyses of different morphological traits and of various DNA sequences have yielded equivocal and partly contradictory results.

A prehistoric genus sometimes assigned to the swifts, Primapus Early Eocene of England , might also be a more distant ancestor.

There are around species of swifts, normally grouped into two subfamilies and four tribes. The wingtip bones of swiftlets are of proportionately greater length than those of most other birds.

Changing the angle between the bones of the wingtips and forelimbs allows swifts to alter the shape and area of their wings to increase their efficiency and maneuverability at various speeds.

This flight arrangement might benefit the bird's control and maneuverability in the air. The swiftlets or cave swiftlets have developed a form of echolocation for navigating through dark cave systems where they roost.

Swifts occur on all the continents except Antarctica, but not in the far north, in large deserts, or on many oceanic islands. Some species can survive short periods of cold weather by entering torpor , a state similar to hibernation.

Many have a characteristic shape, with a short forked tail and very long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang.

The flight of some species is characterised by a distinctive "flicking" action quite different from swallows. Swifts range in size from the pygmy swiftlet Collocalia troglodytes , which weighs 5.

The nest of many species is glued to a vertical surface with saliva, and the genus Aerodramus use only that substance, which is the basis for bird's nest soup.

Other swifts select holes and small cavities in walls. Both parents assist in raising the young. Swifts as a family have smaller egg clutches and much longer and more variable incubation and fledging times than passerines with similarly sized eggs, resembling tubenoses in these developmental factors.

Young birds reach a maximum weight heavier than their parents; they can cope with not being fed for long periods of time, and delay their feather growth when undernourished.

Swifts and seabirds have generally secure nest sites, but their food sources are unreliable, whereas passerines are vulnerable in the nest but food is usually plentiful.

All swifts eat insects, such as aerial spiders, dragonflies, flies, ants, aphids, wasps and bees. Some species, like the chimney swift, hunt with other bird species as well.

No swift species has become extinct since , [17] but BirdLife International assesses the Guam swiftlet as endangered and lists the Atiu , dark-rumped , Schouteden's , Seychelles and Tahiti swiftlets as vulnerable ; twelve other species are near threatened or lack sufficient data for classification.

The hardened saliva nests of the edible-nest swiftlet and the black-nest swiftlet have been used in Chinese cooking for over years, most often as bird's nest soup.

Most nests are built during the breeding season by the male swiftlet over a period of 35 days. They take the shape of a shallow cup stuck to the cave wall.

The nests are composed of interwoven strands of salivary cement and contain high levels of calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Redirected from Swifts. Family of birds. For other uses, see Swift disambiguation.

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