In literature, the earliest known mention of the Common Swift appears to date back to the Bible: LACK (1956) expresses the conviction that the Hebrew „sus“ in the 8th chapter of the Prophet Jeremiah refers to the swift and not to the swallow, since in modern Arabic „sus“ likewise means swift: „The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle dove and the crane and the swift observe the time of their coming“ is how the passage would then read.
Caius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder, 23–79 AD) gives a vivid account in his „Natural History of Man and Animals“ of the Apodes and Cypselus apus, the wall swallow: „Those that fly most of all are the so-called footless ones, because the use of their feet is denied them; others also call them cave birds. They belong to the swallows and nest in rocks. [...] All other birds do at least perch and stand, but these have no rest anywhere except in the nest, for they are either flying or lying.“
In 1612 SAMUEL DRAYTON wrote in „Noah’s Flood“: „The nimble-winged swallow, feeding as she flies / With the fleeting swift, piercing the skies –“. In „Annus mirabilis“ by JOH. DRYDEN (1667) there is mention of the „swift high in the heavens“; and in 1774 GILBERT WHITE described swifts („amusive birds“) and their habits in prose and verse in „The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne“.
THOMAS PENNANT reported in „British Zoology“ of 1776 on a pair of swifts found in February 1766 in the chapel of Longnor in Shropshire, torpid but alive, and voiced the suspicion that this species passed the winter in that way – a phenomenon hard to explain, but not the only report of its kind (LACK, 1956).
HERMANN LÖNS calls the Common Swifts „birds of death“ and „plague swallows“ in his „Animal Stories“, in the chronicle of a town clerk: „But on the first of May there appeared at the tower of St. Aegidius most dreadfully large and exceedingly swift birds after the manner of swallows, which shrieked so frightfully that all who heard it were sore afraid. These birds, unknown here, are the plague swallows, from which it is to be concluded that there will be no end to the misery for some time yet.“
Times of plague occurred in the 14th century, but again in 1610 as well.
As early as 1557 CONRAD GESNER devoted a lengthy treatise to the Common Swift in his „Vogelbuch“ (Bird Book) (cf. the 1981 reprint of the 2nd edition of 1669), and the famous work by J. A. NAUMANN (Volume 4, 1840) contained the first authoritative scientific account in the German language.
Modern monographs on the species were published by LACK in 1956, who studied a breeding colony in Oxford in detail and in many instances also drew on the work of the Swiss researcher EMIL WEITNAUER, who occupied himself intensively with the Common Swift above all from 1948 to 1955. In the 1950s WEITNAUER finally proved beyond doubt, with the help of night flights and radar, that the Common Swift spends the night on the wing. This gives the Common Swift a unique position among all the bird species on earth.
Even today many aspects of the Common Swift’s life remain unknown and puzzling. Because of its life bound to the air, it largely eludes the conventional methods of bird observation, and even at the nest site – its only point of contact with humans and with the ground – it is difficult to study, since nests are usually not accessible. Investigating the life of a perpetual flier in captivity is scarcely possible. Only accessible natural colonies, the hand-rearing of orphaned young swifts and the handling of individuals that depend on human help for a short time allow insights into the behaviour and way of life of the „strange guest beneath our roofs“ (LACK, 1956).