Little Swift

The little swift is a small swift with a wingspan of only about 33cm. It is black except for a white throat and a white rump patch that wraps onto the flanks, and it has a short, square tail. Its flight is fluttering, like a house martin's, and its call is a high twittering. Like other swifts it has very short legs, used only for clinging to vertical surfaces. A population once counted as an eastern subspecies is now the separate house swift (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds around buildings and cliffs, placing its nest in a hole in a building or sometimes on a cliff and laying one to four eggs, and it returns to the same site year after year, rebuilding the nest as needed. It spends most of its life in the air, feeding on insects and drinking on the wing. In India it is resident across a very large range. SoIB 2023 estimates a long-term decline of about 38% but a current increase of about 6% a year, and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).