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White throated Needletail 0A2A6919🐦

Photo: JJ Harrison · CC BY-SA 4.0

SpeciesApodiformesApodidae
Birds

🐦White-throated Needletail

Hirundapus caudacutus (Latham, 1801)

The white-throated needletail, also known as the needle-tailed swift or spine-tailed swift, is a large swift in the genus Hirundapus. It is reputed to reach speeds of up to 170 km/h (110 mph) in horizontal flight, but this is unverified because the methods used to measure its speed have not been published. 75 km/h (47 mph) is more likely, but this is still at least 100 times the bird's length per second.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Measurements
9
vs you
≈ 1/650th of your weight
Also called
Asian Spine-tailed Swift, Needle-tailed Swift, Spine-tailed Swift
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2024.

Population trendStable
Key measurements
Body mass
0.1 kg
Body length
not recorded
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
not recorded
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the White-throated Needletail

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
0.1 kg
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Tail length
0.05 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Wing length
0.21 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Beak length
0.01 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Tarsus length
0.02 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Trophic level
Carnivore
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Habitat
Woodland
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Lifestyle
Aerial
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
0.1 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for White-throated Needletail yet: body length, shoulder height, top speed, bite force, maximum lifespan.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›classAves
  4. ›orderApodiformes
  5. ›familyApodidae
  6. ›genusHirundapus
  7. ›speciesHirundapus caudacutus
Full lineage
  1. classBirds · Aves
  2. familyApodidae
  3. subfamilyApodinae
  4. genusHirundapus
All 13 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassSarcopterygii
  7. superclassTetrapoda
  8. orderSauria
  9. classBirds · Aves
  10. orderApodiformes
  11. familyApodidae
  12. subfamilyApodinae
  13. genusHirundapus
More

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In other languages
taggstjärtseglare (sv), ハリオアマツバメ (ja), 白喉针尾雨燕 (zh), falciot espinós (ca), rorýs východní (cs), Tornhalesejler (da) … and 24 more languages
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