Birds eat, mate and sleep while flying, can fly for 10 months without landing

Apus apus - common swift, currently holds the bird world record for the most time spent in the air per year.

This medium-sized bird can fly for 10 months without landing. They mainly drink and eat in the air. Their food is any insect they can catch on the fly. Swallows can also mate in the air, and even in the air by gliding on warm air currents.

Research by a team of researchers at the Department of Biology of Lund University in Sweden shows that non-breeding common swifts spend more than 99% of their time in the air during a 10-month period.

With their long and narrow wings, short and light legs, the birds have an almost perfect aerodynamic shape for almost non-stop flight, said Ian Hedenström, a French research expert. They also shed very slowly over a six-month period, so long-term flight is not affected.

The swift flight time of swiftlets is thought to directly affect their high survival rate, which is higher than that of most birds. Being airborne for long periods of time means they don't have to be exposed to too many parasites and don't have to worry about predators, except for birds of prey that catch them by surprise.

The data of scientists show that the life span of swiftlets is more than 20 years and during their lifetime they can fly over 3 million km.

David Pac

Update 24 July 2023