Juvenile swifts: plumage grey-black, somewhat duller; feathers edged with white, particularly striking on the axillaries, the wing coverts and the large feathers (flight and tail feathers), broadest on the forehead, which thereby takes on a white appearance; throat extensively pure white; characteristic are the white "whiskers" projecting between the nostril and the upper mandible.
Remember:
The belly and breast of a Common Swift are always dark, whereas in the Barn Swallow and the House Martin they are white. The Alpine Swift also has a white belly and breast – but with a wingspan of 60 cm and a weight of 90–100 g it cannot be mistaken for a swallow.
Because of their striking brow ridge, found swifts are also readily taken by their finders for "small birds of prey". For your information: all young true falcons have pure white downy plumage. Young buzzards, goshawks and sparrowhawks can be recognised easily by their yellow feet, among other features. In general, all birds of prey occurring in our region are considerably larger than a Common Swift.
The Common Swift's powerful pincer feet are unmistakable. Four hook-like toes are arranged like the fingers of a spread hand (on a "normal" bird's foot either three toes point forward and one backward, e.g. in songbirds and gamebirds, or two toes point forward and two backward, e.g. in parrots and woodpeckers). Swifts grip firmly with their claws in a most noticeable, often even painful way, and thus clearly disprove a long-standing error: that they have "vestigial" feet!
The Alpine Swift and the Pallid Swift have exactly the same powerful pincer feet.
