Kingdom:  Animalia
Phylum:  Chordata
Class:  Aves
Order:  Apodiformes
Family:  Spodidae

    Swifts are all over the world.  There are about 71 kinds of these birds.  They fly around most of the day and only stop flying once in awhile.  They even eat while they are flying.  Sometimes they rest on cliffs, in caves and in hollow trees.  They like to nest in places like that, too.
    Their nests are made up of things they find while they are flying around.  The male and female swift put the nest together with saliva when they are getting ready to mate.  The female lays from 1-6 eggs and she sits on them carefully so that they are protected and warm.  They hatch in 17-28 days.  The babies are called chicks.  Chicks stay in the nest for one to two months.  They are fed a 'bolus' which is a gross sounding glob of insects that comes from the mother or father bird's throat.  The chicks will grow fast or slow depending on the weather.  If the weather is good, the parent birds can get out and get more food, more often.  This makes the chick grow faster.  If the weather is bad, the parent birds don't go out to get food because insects aren't out flying in bad weather.  Chicks that don't get a lot of food grow slower and stay in the nest longer. 
    The Swifts have tiny feet and wings that are long and narrow.   They are  brown, black, and some have white throats.
    Some swifts will migrate to some place warmer when winter comes.  Some swifts will hibernate.  They will go to their protected nests and go to sleep.  Their sleep will be for shorter periods of time with them waking up in between.  They still go through hibernation the same way that other animals do.  Their bodies slow down.  Their heart beats and breathing are very slow and their body temperatures drop.  Waking up helps the swifts because then they can try to get enough food to hold them over when they go to sleep again.