---
title: "Chimney Swift"
description: "Chaetura pelagica — Birds. The chimney swift (Chaetura pelagica) is a bird belonging to the swift family Apodidae."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/chimney-swift
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Chimney Swift

> Chaetura pelagica — Birds. The chimney swift (Chaetura pelagica) is a bird belonging to the swift family Apodidae.

- Scientific name: *Chaetura pelagica*
- Category: `birds` (Birds)
- Habitats: `urban` (Towns & gardens)
- iNaturalist observations: 14951
- Wikidata: [Q912863](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q912863)
- iNaturalist taxon: [6571](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/6571)

## Names

- en: Chimney Swift
- de: Schornsteinsegler
- es: Vencejo de Chimenea
- fr: Martinet ramoneur
- nl: Schoorsteengierzwaluw
- pt: Andorinhão-pelágico
- pl: Kominiarczyk amerykański

## Countries with the most observations

US (10126), CA (1387), MX (45), PA (12), HN (9), CR (8), PE (5), CO (3)

## Summary

The chimney swift (Chaetura pelagica) is a bird belonging to the swift family Apodidae. A member of the genus Chaetura, it is closely related to both Vaux's swift and Chapman's swift; in the past, the three were sometimes considered to be conspecific. It has no subspecies. The chimney swift is a medium-sized, sooty gray bird with very long, slender wings and very short legs. Like all swifts, it is incapable of perching on flat surfaces, and can only perch on vertical surfaces. Many fly around all day and only come down at night when roosting.
The chimney swift feeds primarily on flying insects, but also on airborne…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimney_swift

## Photo

![Chimney Swift](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/chimney-swift/medium.jpg)

Photo: Chrissy McClarren and Andy Reago · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/87211923

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/chimney-swift?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).