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269:. Until recently it was thought that the birds wintered on the African coast but recent studies suggest they travel much further to the equatorial forests of Liberia and Guinea, a distance of 2,600 kilometres. Small numbers are also believed to breed in Morocco between Agadir and Essaouira, where a colony was found on coastal cliffs and possibly also in Mauritania where there are frequent sightings
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Distinguishing the plain swift from the similarly plumaged common swift is much more difficult, although juvenile common can be easily eliminated due to its white throat. The plain is slimmer and appears longer winged than the common, and has scaly underparts, difficult to see except with excellent
280:, which also occur in the archipelagos, and separation is only possible with good views. Like its relatives, it has a short forked tail and very long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a
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It is entirely dark except for an indistinct pale throat patch. It is slimmer and more rakish than the pallid swift, and is darker than that species and lacks the obvious white throat.
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Swifts have very short legs that they use only for clinging to vertical surfaces. They never settle voluntarily on the ground, and spend most of their lives in the air, feeding on
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views. The call is a loud dry scream similar to that of the common swift, though possibly higher pitched.
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Geolocator study reveals that
Canarian Plain Swifts Apus unicolor winter in equatorial West Africa
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Norton, T., Atkinson, P., Hewson, C. & Eduardo Garcia-del-Rey, E. 2018.
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This 14–15 cm long species is very similar to the closely related
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Plain swifts breed in colonies on cliffs, bridges and buildings on the
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that they catch in their beaks. They drink on the wing.
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species. The resemblances between the groups are due to
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333:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T22686806A119263428.en
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574:cb27d52a-3d9d-4153-abb5-a9b0c2f61a18
727:IUCN Red List least concern species
319:IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
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752:Taxa named by Sir William Jardine
243:reflecting similar life styles.
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308:BirdLife International (2017).
227:is superficially similar to a
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365:Sociedad Ornitologica Canaria
235:, it is not related to those
737:Birds of the Canary Islands
378:by Chantler and Driessens,
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326:: e.T22686806A119263428.
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70:Scientific classification
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747:Birds described in 1830
569:Fauna Europaea (new)
241:convergent evolution
219:) is a medium-sized
40:Conservation status
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686:Open Tree of Life
408:Taxon identifiers
360:African Bird Club
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742:Birds of Madeira
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183:Binomial name
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337:. Retrieved
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24:Plain swift
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595:iNaturalist
440:Wikispecies
397:Plain Swift
339:11 November
211:plain swift
140:Apodiformes
721:Categories
699:Xeno-canto
295:References
282:boomerang
263:migratory
237:passerine
168:Species:
130:Strisores
93:Kingdom:
87:Eukaryota
639:22686806
613:11192146
486:22686806
481:BirdLife
431:Q1096617
425:Wikidata
150:Apodidae
146:Family:
107:Chordata
103:Phylum:
97:Animalia
83:Domain:
60:IUCN 3.1
665:1160812
587:5228694
522:plaswi1
496:plaswi1
468:Avibase
367:. 15 pp
259:Madeira
248:insects
202:, 1830)
200:Jardine
156:Genus:
136:Order:
113:Class:
58: (
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626:555006
543:EURING
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376:Swifts
363:&
274:common
267:Africa
678:71750
608:IRMNG
561:97069
530:EUNIS
517:eBird
509:67QF5
493:BOW:
221:swift
124:Clade
660:NCBI
634:IUCN
621:ITIS
600:6642
582:GBIF
548:7940
380:ISBN
341:2021
324:2017
276:and
257:and
225:bird
209:The
161:Apus
117:Aves
647:NBN
535:892
504:CoL
455:ADW
328:doi
231:or
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
