# Swift Behavior **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 21, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swift-behavior/610222 "2012-01-21T16:32:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swift-behavior/610222/1 "2012-01-21T16:32:10Z")
Around here it’s been a warm winter, ranging from “a bit warmer than usual” to “wa-a-a-a-ay warmer than normal.” The last twelve hours have been intermittently rainy with a marked cooling period. Starting a couple days ago and becoming so remarkable as to provoke this question today, we’ve had large flocks of swifts flying around and roosting in nearby trees. This has been both at the ‘normal’ circa-dawn and -sunset times for swift feeding flights and also during daylight hours. There has been no obvious flying-bug concentrations that would help account for this behavior. Anyone familiar with what they’re up to, and whether it’s normal behavior for swifts in January? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swift-behavior/610222/2 "2012-01-22T15:32:33Z")
Going to take my free bump, in hopes some ornithological types show up. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swift-behavior/610222/3 "2012-01-22T20:01:27Z")
Would be nice to know where “here” is for you (since you have inputted a whimsical “location”). ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swift-behavior/610222/4 "2012-01-22T20:45:30Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Would be nice to know where “here” is for you (since you have inputted a whimsical “location”). Ah, rural North Carolina, near the Fall Line. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swift-behavior/610222/5 "2012-01-22T21:01:59Z")
Chimney swifts are found only in the summer in all of eastern US where they appear at all, except for the coastal areas of Va. and NC., where they are found year round. I don’t know what you mean by “fall line,” but I assume that alludes to the foothills. Are you sure they are swifts? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swift-behavior/610222/6 "2012-01-23T03:04:56Z")
We’re on the extreme interior of the coastal plain, about 2-10 miles from the “fall line”, the upper limit of theoretical stillwater navigation on local rivers before rapids and/or waterfalls occur. (“Theoretical” because on some smaller streams, anything larger than two hamsters in a 1:20 scale canoe would bottom out, but still the concept that a shallow enough draft boat could make it to the fall line exists.) And they;re definitely swifts – at our previous home we knew of two colonies that roosted in an old chimney and an unused tobacco-curing shed. The coloration, the ‘jinking’, the alternate-wing optical illusion in their flight, and most especially the rounded tail, make them clearly swifts. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swift-behavior/610222/7 "2012-01-23T03:39:44Z")
They might be Vaux’s Swifts, a flock of which I saw one winter in Gainesville, Florida. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swift-behavior/610222/8 "2012-01-23T10:06:24Z")
Both swift and Vaux’s swifts are found in winter where you live, but I don’t know the reason for the sudden influx now. Could be a migration flock of swifts.