A little wonder, every day

Swifts can remain airborne for months

Чорні стрижі в Пекіні; документальне фото інших птахів, не особин дослідження 2016 року / Common swifts in Beijing; documentary photograph of other birds, not the individuals tracked in 2016. Credit: FlyingBatt; CC BY-SA 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=146723690

Чорний стриж у польоті, Барселона; не птах із реєстратором дослідження 2016 року / A common swift in flight, Barcelona; not a bird carrying a logger in the 2016 study. Credit: pau.artigas; CC BY-SA 2.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=10187946

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Чорні стрижі в Пекіні; документальне фото інших птахів, не особин дослідження 2016 року / Common swifts in Beijing; documentary photograph of other birds, not the individuals tracked in 2016. Credit: FlyingBatt; CC BY-SA 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=146723690

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A 2016 study of common swifts, Apus apus, found that they spent over 99% of a ten-month nonbreeding period airborne. Some tracked individuals had no recorded landings at all. This does not mean every swift never lands: breeding birds use nests, and behavior varies by individual and circumstances. Activity loggers establish sustained flight but are not themselves recordings of brain sleep.