Common Swifts

Description:

The Common Swift is a medium-sized bird, superficially similar to the Barn Swallow or House Martin but somewhat larger. It is, however, completely unrelated to those passerine species, since swifts are in the separate order Apodiformes. The resemblances between the groups are due to convergent evolution reflecting similar life styles. Swifts nearest relatives are thought to be the New World hummingbirds and the Southeast Asian treeswifts. (Wikipedia)

Notes:

Except when breeding, Swifts spend their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in flight. They drink, feed, and often mate and sleep on the wing. No other bird spends as much of its life in flight. Feeding parties can be very large indeed in suitable insect-rich areas, such as wetlands. Reports of as many as 2000 Swifts feeding over flooded gravel pits, lakes and marshy river deltas are not uncommon, and may represent an ingress of Swifts from a huge area of maybe 100 kilometres radius. (Wikipedia)