Pacific Swift

The Pacific swift is the largest of the Apus swifts, 17–18 cm long, averaging 44.5 g in females and 42.5 g in males. Its general shape and blackish plumage recall the common swift, but it has a white rump band and heavily marked underparts, a deeper tail fork and a broader rump. It tends to hunt higher than most of its relatives other than the white-throated needletail, and often travels and feeds with needletails. Its main call is a typical swift screech (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in eastern Asia and is strongly migratory, spending the northern winter in Southeast Asia and Australia. It is one of a group of closely related Asian swifts formerly treated as one species. Two or three white eggs are normal, incubated for about 17 days. Young birds can be told by pale fringes to the wing feathers that adults lack.