Lost & Found

COMMON SWIFTS ARE A FAMILIAR FIXTURE of our summer skies, but there are a number of rarer species in this bird family that visit as occasional vagrants from afar.

- James Hanlon

VAGRANT SPECIES DIARY Pacific swift, Shetland

Three of these show a common feature that is lacking in our own common swift (in all but a tiny handful of aberrantly plumaged individuals) - a white rump that stands out a mile on an essentially otherwise dark-looking bird. For the avid rarity hunter a glimpse of this feature on any distant swift is sure to get the heart pumping!