Common swift
Apus apus
Sickle-winged birds that circle around minarets screaming on summer evenings. They spend almost their whole lives in the air.
| Size | 16–17 cm |
|---|---|
| Wingspan | 38–40 cm |
| Weight | 35–50 g |
| Diet | Insects caught in the air |
| Eggs | 2–3 |
| Where to see it | Cities, old buildings; April–August |
The swift looks like a swallow but isn't related. Dark brown, almost black. Its wings are long and curved like sickles. Its legs are so short that it struggles to take off from the ground, so it hardly ever lands.
It eats in the air, drinks in the air, sleeps in the air. No joke. Research has shown that some swifts fly for ten months without landing at their wintering grounds in Africa.
They build their nests in gaps under the roofs of old buildings, mosques and towers. They even collect the material from feathers and trash drifting in the air, and glue it together with their saliva.
When the gaps under roofs are closed during restorations, the swifts lose their homes. In some cities, special swift boxes are fixed to buildings. A nice thing.
To draw it in DrawBird
Draw the wing from the gull lesson thin and curved like a sickle. Make the body small and the tail short and forked. Make the whole bird dark brown and put a small light patch on the throat.
Drawing lesson: How to draw a gull →
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