Common Swifts Set Amazing Nonstop Flight Record

Common swifts (a.k.a. Apus apus) have been renowned for ages as graceful, indefatigable birds that glide through the air and travel for what seems to be an eternity without touching land. But just how long do these birds stay airborne as they make their migratory journey to western and central Africa? According to a new study from Sweden, the birds can go for as long as a record-setting 10 months without them ever touching down on the ground.

Lead author Anders Hedenstrom of Lund University in Sweden told the Washington Post that the common swifts’ achievement is the “most extreme example” of continuous flight that he and his team know of. The team of researchers observed a total of 13 swifts over a period of two years, outfitting the birds with tiny backpacks loaded with light sensors and accelerometers.

According to the Post, the light sensors were used for geolocation, and took note of sunrise and sunset times. The accelerometers, on the other hand, were used to track the speed of the swifts’ forward flight and how their wings had beat, allowing Hedenstrom’s team to have an idea of the distance and speed of their travel, and how long they spent on the ground, if applicable.

The swifts are the best… https://t.co/pnwXsc4gQJ #Apusapus

— David Hawkins (@paganhead) October 13, 2016

When the numbers were crunched and the data analyzed, the researchers concluded that common swifts spend almost all of their time migrating airborne – 99.5 percent, to be exact. In those 10 months traveling from northern Europe to central Africa and back, they only touch down for one or two hours at a time, then return to the air to continue their long flight.

It may seem that the common swifts’ nonstop flight does have some rest breaks in between, with emphasis on some. But Hedenstrom noted that three of the 13 birds did not take any sort of break, going 10,000 miles back and forth while airborne. The researchers added that this is an unprecedented observation, as even the frigate bird spends only mere weeks in the air before resting.

This isn’t the first time swifts have been associated with impressive feats of nonstop flight. According to National Geographic, a 2013 study led by the Swiss Ornithological Institute was able to track three alpine swifts and determine that they may have flown for 200 straight days as they migrated from Switzerland to Africa, then traveled back home. Alpine swifts are larger than their common swift counterparts, with wingspans measuring up to 22 inches.

So what do these birds do while spending all that time in the sky? Fellow Lund researcher Susanne Akesson, who is married to Hedenstrom, explained the swifts’ airborne activities to National Geographic.

“They feed in the air, they mate in the air, they get nest material in the air … They can land on nest boxes, branches, or houses, but they can’t really land on the ground.”

One may also wonder if these swifts actually get to sleep while flying nonstop for close to a year. Though it remains a speculative theory at the moment, Hedenstrom noted that the swifts fly upwards at dawn and dusk and may take quick naps while they drift down from those impressive heights.

Fascinating as they are for their endurance in the air, Hedenstrom also told the Washington Post that common swifts are a peculiarity in the animal kingdom in another way. Despite their extraordinary nonstop flight record and their diminutive size, they live surprisingly long. The birds have an average lifespan of five years, but could live as long as 20 years, which is impressive considering their rather small (15-inch) wingspan.

“Flight is very energetically costly,” Hedenstrom explained. “To lead a life in the fast lane, so to speak, that would be associated with low survival. But (common) swifts are actually the opposite: They live for very long life spans for birds of their size.”

[Featured Image by Pau Artigas | Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and Resized | CC BY-SA 2.0]