Cypsiurus

Cypsiurus is a genus of birds in the swift family Apodidae. It includes three species, which were formerly considered to be conspecific due to their similarity.

Cypsiurus
African palm swift
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Clade:	Strisores
Order:	Apodiformes
Family:	Apodidae
Tribe:	Apodini
Genus:	Cypsiurus Lesson, 1843
Type species
Cypselus ambrosiacus[1] Temminck, 1828
Species[2]
C. balasiensis (Gray, 1829) C. parvus (Lichtenstein, 1823) C. gracilis (Sharpe, 1871)

Species

Genus Cypsiurus – Lesson, 1843 – three species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	IUCN status and estimated population
Asian palm swift	Cypsiurus balasiensis (Gray, 1829) Four subspecies C. b. balasiensis (Gray, 1829) C. b. bartelsorum Brooke, 1972 C. b. infumatus (Sclater, 1866) C. b. pallidior (McGregor, 1905)	Widespread throughout Asia	LC [3] Population unknown
African palm swift	Cypsiurus parvus (Lichtenstein, 1823) Six subspecies C. p. brachypterus (Reichenow, 1903) C. p. celer Clancey, 1983 C. p. hyphaenes Brooke, 1972 C. p. laemostigma (Reichenow, 1905) C. p. myochrous (Reichenow, 1886) C. p. parvus (Lichtenstein, 1823)	Widespread throughout Africa	LC [4] Population unknown
Malagasy palm swift	Cypsiurus gracilis (Sharpe, 1871) Two subspecies C. g. gracilis (Sharpe, 1871) C. g. griveaudi Benson, 1960	Madagascar and the Comoros	LC [5] Population unknown

Description

They have mainly pale brown plumage and long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang. The body is slender, and the tail is long and deeply forked, although it is usually held closed. The sexes are similar, and young birds differ from adults mainly in their shorter tails. Palm swifts have very short legs which they use only for clinging to vertical surfaces, since swifts never settle voluntarily on the ground.^{[citation needed]}

These swifts spend most of their lives in the air, living on flying insects. Palm swifts often feed near the ground, and they drink on the wing. ^{[citation needed]}