“…and today we’re talking about a high fly star that’s not Taylor or D’andre… But more on that later.
High above the Alps, where even eagles take snack breaks, there’s a bird that laughs in the face of gravity, sleep schedules, and layovers. It’s a feathered jet stream, a sky-soaring insomniac that treats “touching grass” like a bad habit. So tighten your seatbelt and stow your tray tables, because some things just never come down—like the alpine swift here in Life, Death, and Taxonomy.
Description
It looks like a swift mixed with a falcon. It has a small sharp beak on a sleek aerodynamic head.
It has a distinct angular swift-shape when it’s flying. Pointed wings, and flying V style tail feathers.
Dark brown upperparts, pale underparts with a distinctive dark breast band and white throat patch. The belly is whitish, creating a sharp contrast.
Measure Up
Welcome to the beloved Measure Up segment. The official listener’s favorite part of the show! The part of the show when we present the animal’s size and dimension in relatable terms through a quiz that’s fun for the whole family. It’s also the part of the show that’s introduced by you when you send in audio of yourself saying, singing, or chittering the words Measure Up into ldtaxonomy at gmail dot com.
Swift – Clip: Fly With Me (HD)
Wingspan of the Alpine Swift
The Alpine Swift has a wingspan of 51–58 cm (20–23 in). How many objects fit into the swift’s wingspan (if the object is shorter) or how many swifts fit into the object’s length/diameter (if the object is longer)?
a) The length of a Swiss Army knife blade
A standard Victorinox Swiss Army knife main blade measures about 8.5 cm (3.35 inches) long, based on model specifications.
b) The diameter of a Matterhorn cable car pod
A cable car pod on the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise lift in Zermatt, Switzerland, has a diameter of about 3 meters (300 cm or 118 inches), per lift engineering records.
c) The length of an edelweiss flower stalk
An edelweiss (Leontopodium nivale), the Alpine flower symbol of Switzerland, has a stalk measuring about 15 cm (5.91 inches) tall for a mature bloom, per botanical data.
Question: How many fit into each wingspan comparison?
A) 6.9 Swiss Army knife blades go into the wingspan of an Alpine Swift
B) 3.1 Alpine Swifts go into the diameter of a Matterhorn cable car pod
C) 4.9 edelweiss flower stalks go into the wingspan of an Alpine Swift
Body Length of the Alpine Swift
The Alpine Swift has a body length of 23 cm (9.06 inches). How many objects fit into the swift’s body length (if the object is shorter) or how many swifts fit into the object’s length (if the object is longer)?
a) The length of a Swiss chocolate bar
A standard Lindt Swiss chocolate bar measures about 18 cm (7.09 inches) long, based on product packaging.
b) The height of a Tyrolean hat feather
A traditional Tyrolean hat (Gamsbart) feather from the Austrian Alps measures about 30 cm (11.81 inches) long, per cultural artifact descriptions.
c) The length of an Alpine ibex horn segment
A single horn segment from an Alpine ibex (Capra ibex), native to the European Alps, measures about 10 cm (3.94 inches) for a young growth section, per wildlife data.
Question: How many fit into each body length comparison?
A) 2.3 Swiss chocolate bars go into the body length of an Alpine Swift
B) 1.3 Alpine Swifts go into the height of a Tyrolean hat feather
C) 4.3 Alpine ibex horn segments go into the body length of an Alpine Swift
Fast Facts
Breeding range: Southern Europe, North Africa, Middle East, and parts of Asia (Himalayas to China).
Diet: Exclusively aerial plankton—insects, spiders, and other arthropods caught in flight.
Nesting sites: Colonial nester in cliff crevices, caves, or under bridges/eaves in mountainous regions.
Clutch: 2–3 white eggs, incubated for ~20 days. Chicks fledge after 50–70 days.
Long-distance migrant: Winters in sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, or southern India.
Speed & endurance: Cruises at 40–60 km/h but can reach over 110 km/h in level flight; known to fly thousands of kilometers non-stop.
The species name melba honors Marie-Anne Melba, wife of a 19th-century ornithologist.
Alpine Swifts can detect weather changes and avoid storms by flying around or above them.
Their screaming, high-pitched calls are a hallmark of summer skies in Mediterranean and Alpine regions.
Major Fact: Nonstop Nonsense: Six Months of Sky-Denied Slumber
- Alpine swifts pull off the avian equivalent of a Red Bull-fueled bender, logging over 200 days airborne without so much as a pit stop for a power nap or a quick perch. That’s almost seven months in the air.
- They migrate from breeding grounds in the European Alps to winter haunts in sub-Saharan Africa, covering thousands of miles on thermal updrafts like budget airline pros who never check a bag.
- These birds micro-snooze mid-flight, unihemispherically dozing one brain half while the other plays autopilot—because who needs a full shutdown when you’ve got inertia on your side?
- Foraging happens on the wing too, snatching insects like airborne vacuum cleaners, solving the “how do you eat without landing?” conundrum.
- This nonstop schtick dodges predators on the ground (think cats and kids with slingshots) and conserves energy by ditching the daily takeoff tax.
- Tracked via tiny geolocators in a 2011 Swiss study, researchers tracked six alpine swifts that measured their acceleration and the pitch of their bodies to determine that they likely never landed for 200 days straight as they made their way from Europe to West Africa.
- The sensors sent data packages every 4 minutes, so it’s possible they landed in between, but every single data point has them in the air for more than six months.
- The feat slashes migration risks: no exhausting desert crossings or ocean swims—just glide, eat, repeat.
- Impacts breeding success by letting them bulk up fat reserves pre-flight, arriving to their seaside nests svelte and ready to melt.
- Ecologically, it amps their range expansion northward as climates warm, but hey, more sky traffic means more mid-air mergers—who’s got air traffic control for birds?
Ending: So take to the skies, practice your unihemispheric sleep, and save up all your PTO for a six-month cross-country gap year trip like the alpine swift here in LDT.