''Cypsiurus'' is a genus of the
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 ...
family of
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...
s.
There are three species, which were formerly considered to be
conspecific
Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species.
Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...
due to their similarity:
*
Asian palm swift
The Asian palm swift (''Cypsiurus balasiensis'') is a small swift. It is very similar to the African palm swift, ''Cypsiurus parvus'', and was formerly considered to be the same species.
It is a common resident breeder in tropical Asia from Indi ...
, ''Cypsiurus balasiensis''
*
African palm swift
The African palm swift (''Cypsiurus parvus'') is a small swift. It is very similar to the Asian palm swift, ''Cypsiurus balasiensis'', and was formerly considered to be the same species. The Malagasy palm swift was also recently split from this ...
, ''Cypsiurus parvus''
*
Malagasy palm swift
The Malagasy palm swift (''Cypsiurus gracilis'') is a small swift in the family Apodidae. It is very similar to the African palm swift, ''Cypsiurus parvus'', with which it was formerly considered conspecific. It was split based on differences in ...
, ''Cypsiurus gracilis''
They have mainly pale brown plumage and long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a
boomerang
A boomerang () is a thrown tool typically constructed with airfoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight, designed to return to the thrower. The origin of the word is from Australian Aborigin ...
. The body is slender, and the tail is long and deeply forked, although it is usually held closed. The sexes are similar, and young birds differ from adults mainly in their shorter tails. Palm swifts have very short legs which they use only for clinging to vertical surfaces, since swifts never settle voluntarily on the ground.
These swifts spend most of their lives in the air, living on flying insects. Palm swifts often feed near the ground, and they drink on the wing.
References
* Barlow, Wacher and Disley, ''Birds of The Gambia''
* Chantler and Driessens, ''Swifts''
* Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp, ''Birds of India''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q134854
Bird genera
Taxa named by René Lesson