The brown-backed needletail (''Hirundapus giganteus''), or brown needletail, is a large

swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIF ...

. These birds have very short legs which they use only mainly for clinging to vertical surfaces. They never settle voluntarily on the ground and spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their beaks. These swifts are resident breeders in hill forests in southern

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

from

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

east to

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

and the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. They build their nests in rock crevices in cliffs, laying 3-5 eggs. The flight is impressively fast, even compared to other swifts. The brown-backed needletail is a very large swift, and at 23 cm is bigger than the

Alpine swift The alpine swift (''Tachymarptis melba'', formerly ''Apus melba'') is a species of Swift (bird), swift found in Africa, southern Europe, and Asia. They breed in mountains from southern Europe to the Himalayas. Like common swifts, they are bird mi ...

and the

white-throated needletail The white-throated needletail (''Hirundapus caudacutus''), also known as needle-tailed swift or spine-tailed swift, is a large swift in the genus ''Hirundapus''. It is reputed to reach speeds of up to 170 km/h (105 mph) in horizontal flight, but ...

. It has a similar build to the latter species, with a heavy barrel-like body. They are dark brown except for a white undertail, which extends on to the flanks. The ''

Hirundapus ''Hirundapus'' is a genus of swifts in the family Apodidae. The name ''Hirundapus'' is constructed from the names of the swallow genus ''Hirundo'' and the swift genus ''Apus Apus is a small constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemispher ...

'' needletailed swifts get their name from the spined ends of their tail, which is not forked as in the ''

Apus Apus is a small constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere, southern sky. It represents a bird-of-paradise, and its name means "without feet" in Greek language, Greek because the bird-of-paradise was once wrongly believed to lack feet. ...

'' typical swifts.

References

* ''Birds of India'' by Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp, {{Taxonbar, from=Q1259533 brown-backed needletail Birds of South India Birds of Sri Lanka Birds of Southeast Asia brown-backed needletail