Swifts 2011

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by watsthat

Erm... I thought Tenerife was off the African coast in the Atlantic, or have I got it wrong again

No you are not wrong (and I did know where Tenerife was), I just didn't really phrase my coment properly.

What I should have said was (bold parts added) "Common Swifts all winter well south of the Sahara with the most northerly birds not far north of the equator, and with most Pallid Swifts also wintering south of the Sahara, though to the north of the winter range of Common Swifts. Some Pallid Swifts do winter on the north African coast and in the Middle East, although the only regular wintering area in north Africa appears to be around the Nile (although breeding birds may return to northern Morocco as early as late December!)".

Having looked up some details, it seems that I also overlooked the fact that there do not appear to be any Common Swifts breeding in the Canary Islands, and the most likely swift species that p-crackers has seen is Plain swift, Apus unicolor, which is resident in the islands, although numbers are reduced during the winter when most leave for unknown wintering grounds - presumed to be north -west Africa where they have been recorded during the winter (there are breeding Pallid Swifts though).