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The UK Bird Atlas

Alpine Swift (Tachymarptis melba)Where and when to see it in the UK

Status not yet classified · reporting peaks March · Swifts · BOU category AF

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

Alpine Swift (Tachymarptis melba)
Afsarnayakkan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Alpine Swift: 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.

Alpine Swift has been recorded in 132 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (4%) in records to 2026. Its strongest squares are in England, Wales and Scotland. Reporting peaks in March.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
100% or more of visits
High
9% to 100%
Moderate
<1% to 9%
Low
under <1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 0%<1%Insufficient records
February 0%<1%Insufficient records
March 100%<1%Very high
April 27%<1%Low
May 2%<1%Very high
June 1%<1%Very high
July 4%<1%Very high
August 2%<1%Low
September 1%<1%Low
October 0%<1%Moderate
November 0%<1%Insufficient records
December 0%<1%Insufficient records

Squares with the highest reporting rate in March

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
D05Causeway Coast and Glens, Northern Ireland100%Very high
NB56Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scotland100%Very high
NM54Argyll and Bute, Scotland100%Very high
SC28Isle of Man100%Very high
SH87Conwy, Wales100%Very high
SJ08Denbighshire, Wales100%Very high
SO60Gloucestershire, England100%Very high
SO99Wolverhampton, England100%Very high
SP59Leicestershire, England100%Very high
SS14Devon, England100%Very high

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.