A cigar-shaped aerial acrobat that spends virtually its entire life airborne over Hill Country skies, feeding on flying insects and roosting inside hollow trunks or chimneys.
Field Identification: Cigar-shaped dark brownish body with narrow, curved, scythe-like wings and a stubby tail. Rapid, fluttering flight pattern accompanied by high chattering twitters.
Texas & Hill Country Notes: Chimney Swifts cannot perch on branches or walk on the ground; their tiny clawed feet are adapted exclusively for clinging to vertical brick or hollow wood walls. They use sticky saliva secreted by specialized glands to glue small twigs onto vertical walls to form cup nests.
