The Asian Palm Swift (Cypsiurus balasiensis) is a small swift. It is very similar to the African Palm Swift, Cypsiurus parvus, and was formerly considered to be the same species.
It is a common resident breeder in tropical Asia from India to the Philippines. The down and feather nest is glued to the underside of a palm leaf with saliva, which is also used to secure the usually two or three eggs. This is a bird of open country and cultivation, which is strongly associated with Oil Palms.
This 13 cm long species is mainly pale brown in colour. It has long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang. The body is slender, and the tail is long and deeply forke, although it is usually held closed. The call is a loud shrill scream.
Sexes are similar, and young birds differ mainly their shorter tails. Asian Palm Swift has very short legs which it uses only for clinging to vertical surfaces, since swifts never settle voluntarily on the ground.
These swifts spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their beaks. Asian Palm Swifts often feed near the ground, and they drink on the wing.
Read more about Asian Palm Swift: Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words asian, palm and/or swift:
“We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“The oft-repeated Roman story is written in still legible characters in every quarter of the Old World, and but today, perchance, a new coin is dug up whose inscription repeats and confirms their fame. Some “Judæa Capta,” with a woman mourning under a palm tree, with silent argument and demonstration confirms the pages of history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I will venture to affirm, that the three seasons wherein our corn has miscarried did no more contribute to our present misery, than one spoonful of water thrown upon a rat already drowned would contribute to his death; and that the present plentiful harvest, although it should be followed by a dozen ensuing, would no more restore us, than it would the rat aforesaid to put him near the fire, which might indeed warm his fur-coat, but never bring him back to life.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)