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Description

The medium-sized swift is uniformly dark brown with slightly paler throat and upper breast. Inconspicuous spines extend past the web at tips of tail feathers.

  • Length: 5 inches

Watercolor of Chimney Swift

 

  • Wingspan: 12.5 inches
  • Sexes similar
  • Juvenile similar to adult
  • Small aerial bird with cigar-shaped body and crescent-shaped wings
  • Short tail bluntly squared off
  • Plumage sooty gray above with slightly paler rump
  • Buff throat darkening to sooty gray on belly
  • Underwings pale gray
Sound
Thier calls are chirpy and make a twittering song.

Hear a Chimney Swift 

Sound bite courtesy of Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics
Chimney Swift tail
Chimney Swift wing
Chimney Swift tail
Chimney Swift wing
Photo courtesy of Powdermill Avian Research Center

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