CreatureData

Brown-backed needletail

Hirundapus giganteus (Temminck, 1825)

LCLeast Concernbirds

The brown-backed needletail (Hirundapus giganteus) is a species in the family Apodidae, order Apodiformes. Recorded adults weigh 127 g to 145 g. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Brown-backed needletail (Hirundapus giganteus)
Photo: TonyCastro · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the brown-backed needletail

Weight
127 g – 145 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Invertivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
forestsrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch
3.95src for Young per litter or clutch
Lifestyle
Aerialsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Migratorysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the brown-backed needletail live?

Not recorded

What is the brown-backed needletail?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The brown-backed needletail (Hirundapus giganteus), or brown needletail, is a large swift.

These birds have very short legs which they use only mainly for clinging to vertical surfaces. They never settle voluntarily on the ground and spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their beaks.

These swifts are resident breeders in hill forests in southern India and southeast Asia, extending to the Greater Sunda islands of Indonesia and Palawan in the southern Philippines.

They build their nests in rock crevices in cliffs, laying 3-5 eggs. The flight is impressively fast, even compared to other swifts.

The brown-backed needletail is among the largest swifts worldwide, and at 23 cm is bigger than the Alpine swift and the white-throated needletail. It has a similar build to the latter species, with a heavy barrel-like body. They are dark brown except for a white undertail, which extends on to the flanks. There are two subspecies, with the subspecies breeding in southern India (Brown-throated Needletail, H. g. indicus) distinguished from the nominate form, breeding in southeast Asia (H. g. giganteus) by white lores on the former.

The Hirundapus needletailed swifts get their name from the spined ends of their tail, which is not forked as in the Apus typical swifts. The brown-backed needletail has more prominent tail spines than in other needletail species.

From the Wikipedia article “Brown-backed needletail” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brown-backed_needletail&oldid=1363353422), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the brown-backed needletail endangered?

The brown-backed needletail is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the brown-backed needletail classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderApodiformes
  5. familyApodidae
  6. genusHirundapus
  7. SpeciesHirundapus giganteus (Temminck, 1825)

Synonyms Chaetura gigantea, Cypselus giganteus

Other names and names in other languages (37)
  • سمامة بنية الخلفArabic
  • دبوسي الذيل بني الظهرArabic
  • falciot cuaespinós gegantCatalan
  • rorýs hnědohřbetýCzech
  • Llostfain brownWelsh
  • KæmpetornhalesejlerDanish
  • EilseglerGerman
  • brundorsa apodoEsperanto
  • Vencejo giganteSpanish
  • suur-kammsabaEstonian
  • دمسوزنی پشتقهوهایPersian
  • jymykiitäjäFinnish
  • Martinet géantFrench
  • zelenokrila čiopaCroatian
  • maláj sarlósfecskeHungarian
  • Kapinis-jarum gedangIndonesian
  • Kepinis-Jarum GedangIndonesian
  • Rondone dal dorso brunoItalian
  • Rondone codaspinosa dorsobrunoItalian
  • オオハリオアマツバメJapanese
  • didysis hirundapasLithuanian
  • വലിയ മുൾവാലൻ ശരപ്പക്ഷിMalayalam
  • Burung Layang-layang BesarMalay
  • ReuzenstekelstaartgierzwaluwDutch
  • brunryggseilerNorwegian
  • igłosternik wielkiPolish
  • andorinhão-gigantePortuguese
  • andorinhão-de-dorso-castanhoPortuguese
  • Большой колючехвостRussian
  • srp veľkýSlovak
  • Iglorepa čiopa smeđih leđaSerbian
  • brunryggig taggstjärtseglareSwedish
  • นกแอ่นใหญ่หัวตาขาวThai
  • Büyük İğnekuyrukTurkish
  • колючохвіст великийUkrainian
  • 褐喉針尾雨燕Chinese
  • 褐背针尾雨燕Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the brown-backed needletail

Other species in the same genus Hirundapus.

CompareBrown-backed needletail vs White-throated needletailBrown-backed needletail vs Silver-backed needletailBrown-backed needletail vs Purple needletail

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the brown-backed needletail?

An adult brown-backed needletail weighs 127 g – 145 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the brown-backed needletail endangered?

The brown-backed needletail is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the brown-backed needletail?

The brown-backed needletail (Hirundapus giganteus) belongs to the family Apodidae in the order Apodiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Brown-backed needletail (Hirundapus giganteus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-backed-needletail

MLA

“Brown-backed needletail (Hirundapus giganteus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-backed-needletail.

BibTeX
@misc{brown_backed_needletail_2026,
  title = {Brown-backed needletail (Hirundapus giganteus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-backed-needletail},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}