Skip to content
The UK Bird Atlas

White-throated Needletail (Hirundapus caudacutus)Where and when to see it in the UK

Vagrant · reporting peaks January · Swifts · BOU category A

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

White-throated Needletail (Hirundapus caudacutus)
Aviceda, 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.

White-throated Needletail: 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.

White-throated Needletail has been recorded in 5 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (0%) in records to 2026. Vagrant in the UK. Reporting peaks in January.

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

Records by 10 km square

SquareWhereRecordsYearsVerified
TA17East Riding of Yorkshire, England12025unverified
HZ27Shetland Islands, Scotland22022unverified
NL69Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scotland12017unverified
NG19Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scotland62013unverified
SJ57Cheshire West and Chester, 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.