CreatureData

Indian swiftlet

Aerodramus unicolor (Jerdon, 1840)

LCLeast Concernbirds

The Indian swiftlet (Aerodramus unicolor) is a species in the family Apodidae, order Apodiformes. Recorded adults weigh 11 g to 12 g. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Indian swiftlet (Aerodramus unicolor)
Photo: L. Shyamal Shyamal · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the Indian swiftlet

Weight
11 g – 12 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Invertivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
rockysrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch
2src for Young per litter or clutch
Lifestyle
Aerialsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Sedentarysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the Indian swiftlet live?

Not recorded

What is the Indian swiftlet?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The Indian Swiftlet or Indian Edible-Nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus unicolor) is a small swift. It is a common resident colonial breeder in the hills of Sri Lanka and southwest India.

The half-cup nest is built on a vertical surface, often in a cave. The male swift uses thick saliva to construct the white, shiny nest into which two eggs are laid.

The relatively tasteless nests are harvested, and mixed with chicken, spices, and other flavours as bird's nest soup, a supposed aphrodisiac.

This 12 cm long species is mainly dark brown above and paler brown below. It has swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang. The body is slender, and the tail is short and only slightly indented.

Both sexes and young birds are similar. The Indian swiftlet has very short legs which it uses only for clinging to vertical surfaces, since swifts never settle voluntarily on the ground.

These swifts spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their bills, and they drink on the wing.

From the Wikipedia article “Indian swiftlet” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Indian_swiftlet&oldid=1314612706), 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 Indian swiftlet endangered?

The Indian swiftlet 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 Indian swiftlet classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderApodiformes
  5. familyApodidae
  6. genusAerodramus
  7. SpeciesAerodramus unicolor (Jerdon, 1840)

Synonyms Collocalia brevirostris unicolor, Collocalia unicolor, Hirundo unicolor

Other names and names in other languages (32)
  • سمامة هنديةArabic
  • salangana indickáCzech
  • corgoblyn IndiaWelsh
  • Indisk SalanganDanish
  • MalabarsalanganeGerman
  • Malabar-SalanganeGerman
  • hindia salanganoEsperanto
  • Salangana malabarSpanish
  • Salangana de MalabarSpanish
  • india salangaanEstonian
  • intiansalangaaniFinnish
  • Salangane de MalabarFrench
  • malabári szalangánaHungarian
  • Rondone indianoItalian
  • Rondone del MalabarItalian
  • Salangana indianaItalian
  • インドショクヨウアナツバメJapanese
  • indinis erodramasLithuanian
  • ചിത്രകൂടൻ ശരപ്പക്ഷിMalayalam
  • MalabarsalangaanDutch
  • indiasalanganNorwegian
  • salangana brunatnaPolish
  • salangana-indianaPortuguese
  • andorinhão-malabarPortuguese
  • Индийская саланганаRussian
  • salangána hnedastáSlovak
  • Indijska čiopicaSerbian
  • malabarsalanganSwedish
  • Malabar YelyutanıTurkish
  • салангана індійськаUkrainian
  • 印度金丝燕Chinese
  • 印度金絲燕Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the Indian swiftlet

Other species in the same genus Aerodramus.

CompareIndian swiftlet vs Edible-nest swiftletIndian swiftlet vs Black-nest swiftletIndian swiftlet vs Himalayan swiftletIndian swiftlet vs Uniform swiftlet

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the Indian swiftlet?

An adult Indian swiftlet weighs 11 g – 12 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the Indian swiftlet endangered?

The Indian swiftlet 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 Indian swiftlet?

The Indian swiftlet (Aerodramus unicolor) 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). Indian swiftlet (Aerodramus unicolor). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/indian-swiftlet

MLA

“Indian swiftlet (Aerodramus unicolor).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/indian-swiftlet.

BibTeX
@misc{indian_swiftlet_2026,
  title = {Indian swiftlet (Aerodramus unicolor)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/indian-swiftlet},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}