Pallid Swift
Apus pallidus
- Class
- Bird
- Rarity
- Common
- Observations
- 2,348
- Most observed in
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- Conservation
- Least Concern
Description
The pallid swift (Apus pallidus) is a swift (order Apodiformes). Swifts have very short legs which they use only for clinging to vertical surfaces. The genus name Apus is Latin for a swift, thought by the ancients to be a type of swallow with no feet (from Ancient Greek α, a, "without", and πούς, pous, "foot"), and pallidus is Latin for "pale". Like other swifts they never settle voluntarily on the ground, but spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their beaks. They drink on the wing.
Summary adapted from the Wikipedia article “Pallid swift”.