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The UK Bird Atlas

Fork-tailed Swift (Apus pacificus)Where and when to see it in the UK

Scarce migrant · reporting peaks June · Swifts · BOU category A

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Fork-tailed Swift (Apus pacificus)
Robert Pudwill, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Too few records to rate squares by month. Each marked square has at least one record; the table below gives the count and years.

Fork-tailed Swift: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Fork-tailed Swift has been recorded in 13 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (0%) in records to 2026. Scarce migrant in the UK. Reporting peaks in June.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List

Records by 10 km square

SquareWhereRecordsYearsVerified
HU31Shetland Islands, Scotland72023 to 2024unverified
HU41Shetland Islands, Scotland12024unverified
HU32Shetland Islands, Scotland12023unverified
HU40Shetland Islands, Scotland52022unverified
HU54Shetland Islands, Scotland12022unverified
NZ29Northumberland, England82021unverified
NU20Northumberland, England52021unverified
SS48Swansea, Wales22021unverified
TA14East Riding of Yorkshire, England72019unverified
TA41East Riding of Yorkshire, England12019unverified
TM23Suffolk, England832013unverified
TA31East Riding of Yorkshire, England12011unverified
SJ68Warrington, England12008unverified

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.