View allAll Photos Tagged swift
Spain; Alicante, Clot de Galvany 12/9/21.
I still find these one of THE identification conundrums of late summer/autumn. Juvenile Common Swifts are the major problem as adults are usually moulting. In spring, I find Pallid Swifts can be blindingly obvious… they’re all adults; but in late summer juvenile Common Swifts can certainly muddy the waters. I’ve tentatively identified and sometimes aged these when obviously moulting adults. Slightly broader wings and slightly blunter tail on Pallid can help, but of course with birds moulting outer primaries that can go out the window...
The light plays a big part, but as ever the major thing is experience… I don’t watch Pallid Swift every day of the week, at least not in central France...
When I was a twitcher in the UK it was easy, like black and white. I just read it in a book so it must be so. Then I started watching Pallids in late summer in the early 1980’s and pretty soon realised that it wasn’t quite like that… such are the joys of birding… always learning.
So hard to identify hawks because of similar patterns and colors, but most likely this is a red-tailed hawk. Two quick shots as it leaves the field after feeding.
Time to say goodbye to these for another year. The skies seem empty over my house without the screams.
I wanted to post a tribute to my old friend Ed Swift from Warren, MA. Ed was an avid railfan photographer who passed away in 2009. Ed served his country as an aviator in WW II, Korea and Vietnam. He flew transport planes at the end of the war in the Pacific including a forced landing in the ocean with all the crew surviving. Ed loved his classic Alpa cameras as he is holding in this picture in Palmer, MA on March 28, 2003.
A challenge to photograph - they are not called Swifts for nothing. This one, along with hundreds more, was patrolling over Bartley Reservoir in SW Birmingham UK - 02-06-23 #Springwatch
ACDME Race Weekend GT3 Cup
SINGLE SEATER SERIES - Race 2
Car: Swift SC97
Driver: Pedro Vilarinho
Team: Pedro Vilarinho
Photo by Andy
Shot 1 of 5
Photographing swifts feels a bit like playing a video game, with targets flying at you from random angles at ridiculous speeds.
Helen and I have been enjoying trying to keep these amazing birds in frame immensely and it's been a real thrill having these speedsters whizzing past us, often passing by within a few feet so you could hear the whoosh as they passed by.
We wondered whether they were paying us such close attention because we were attracting the insects (some of which bite) that they were feeding on.
Interesting fact "As the bird is hunting, insects are collected in the back of the throat in a special food pouch and bound together with saliva into a ball called a bolus, which is periodically eaten or taken to the nest. These food balls can contain thousands of insects.
Read more at www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-and-wildlife-guid...;
About 1,500 of this type of car were made at the Swift Factory in Mile Lane, Coventry. It would have cost £595 when new. This 1923 Swift Tourer, ES 5309, was purchased by the Coventry Transport Museum in 2003 with aid from the Preservation Scientific and Industrial Museums Fund.
Tracking a swift over the water is something I love to try. It eats batteries, makes the arm muscles burn and fills up memory cards with blurry shots really quickly.
Please, no invitations to award/forced comment groups or to those with large/animated comment codes.
A chunky, large-headed bird of open areas, usually found perched on wires or flying around in search of insects. Soft gunmetal gray with white underparts. Often found pressed together in pairs or tight groups when at rest. Sometimes flies in the same areas as swallows and swifts, but has a much thicker build, with triangular, somewhat starling-like wings. The only woodswallow throughout most of its range. Song is a somewhat myna-like series of sweet warbling and harsh chattering. Also gives nasal scolding “nyeh”, comparable to a jay or treepie. (eBird)
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Frequently seen but not photographed. I finally found a pair on the power lines, then this one came a little closer and I could get a better look. The only angle I had was into the sun so he was pretty shadowed in the final image. A little editing brought out his subtle colours.
Despite the name and appearance, this bird is not a swallow. It is actually in the same family as the Australian Magpie!
Here's a link to our Thailand bird trip list: ebird.org/tripreport/328567
Animal Research and Nutrition Centre, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. February 2025.
Rockjumper Birding Tours.
A Swift Fox (Vulpes fulva) stands guard at the entrance to her den with several young on the prairie landscape in southeast Alberta, Canada.
28 June, 2009.
Slide # GWB_20090628_4154.CR2
Use of this image on websites, blogs or other media without explicit permission is not permitted.
© Gerard W. Beyersbergen - All Rights Reserved Worldwide In Perpetuity - No Unauthorized Use.
On a brief visit to corfu Town on an excursion. Managed to see Alpine swift in plentiful numbers also pallid and common swift along with swallow and house Martins. Feeding to high up for a side on shot. Nonetheless Great to see
A straight swift sucking nectar of the cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) flower.
Parnara guttata (Straight swift or Common straight swift, ‘Ichimonji-seseri’ in Japanese) is a species of butterfly in the skipper family, native to Japan and eastern Asia. Cosmos bipinnatus (Garden cosmos, 'Ooharushagiku' in Japanese) is a species of annual flowering plant in the aster family, native to Americas and cultivated worldwide.
Featuted Items...
AVALE - Swift
for Kalhene (Erika), Inithium (Kupra), Legacy, Slink (Hourglass), Maitreya (Lara), Belleza (Isis & Freya)
@Cosmopalitan - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/No%20Comment/128/67/22
- Sweet Art - Ariel Static Set @Mainstore - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunar%20and%20Friends/148/...
Not an easy bird to track in flight and focus on by any means. Found the only way I had any chance - with their speed and jinxing flight pattern - was to try and lock on some way off and follow them in.
The fastest accurately measured bird in the world under its own power (Peregrines are faster in a stoop but not in level flight).
I like the way the feet seem to fold into the body to improve its aerodynamics.
Taken in Norfolk.
After much failure I finally got one flying at me! Not perfect by any stretch, but still feels Yippee to me!
Photo by Helen :-)
So... Whilst waiting for the American golden plover to come closer, which it didn't, I rattled off several hundred swift in flight shots... The great majority of these were blurry blobs in flight shots or wing tip just poking into the frame shots, both of which were definitely not aesthetically pleasing. After wasting a considerable amount of time trying to achieve an impossible goal for old fat people, I took the converter off, this improved things immensely, I could now, at least, track a bird. As the day wore on and the wind increased, they came much closer to the ground and I actually got a frame I liked.
(Removing your converter increases field of view and does NOT reduce your BMI... It is recommended that eating a heathy, mixed diet, preferably vegan, and getting plenty of exercise will address your sofa slug with a camera syndrome).
Tealham moor
This attractive looking male Orange Swift (Triodia sylvina) was resting on a piece of cardboard in the conservatory waiting for dusk. I couldn’t resist such opportunity. It turned out to be a patient and cooperative model. Bath, Somerset, England.