Great Swallow-tailed Swift

How to find it

Costa Rican records are too few to point to a dependable spot, so treat any sighting as a bonus. Away from Costa Rica, this swift is usually seen alone or in small groups over little-disturbed rocky ground, especially near outcrops. Scanning the sky above cliffs and rocky mountain slopes is the best approach there. In Costa Rica, a tower or an open view of the sky helped one observer get a look. Check every swallow-tailed swift flock for a big, bulky bird gliding slowly among faster ones.

How to recognise it

Look for a large black swift, about 18 to 20.5 cm long, with long narrow wings and a long, deeply forked tail.

The body is mostly bluish black, with two white spots on the forehead. The white throat continues around the neck like a scarf tied at the back. White edges on the inner flight feathers show in flight. The tail is usually held closed to a point, so the fork is not always obvious.

In the Kéköldi record in Limón the possible bird looked large and stocky, and the white tips of the secondaries and tertials formed a clear white line along the rear of the wing.

Elsewhere in its range it is usually the only large black swift with a white throat and a long, deeply forked tail found above 1,000 m.

What it sounds like

Recording: Carlos Funes, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Adults are usually solitary. They fly fast and elegantly, often for long stretches without flapping, with the wings held in a slight arc. It is a very acrobatic flyer that cruises over mountain slopes at high speed and often makes dramatic plunges and sharp turns.

It feeds on insects.

Across its range it builds a long, tube-shaped hanging nest from plant fibers glued together with saliva, like the Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift.

Where it lives

Across its range, the natural habitats are moist montane forest, high-altitude shrubland and heavily degraded former forest. One range-wide elevation figure gives about 600 to 2000 m.

In Costa Rica there are only a few sightings. They come from La Selva Biological Station, the Sarapiquí lowlands, the sky above the General Valley and the southern Caribbean region. A photo record also comes from the Kéköldi Indigenous Territory in Limón.

When to see it

The few Costa Rican sightings fall in different months: March, April, September and November.

Similar birds

The Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift is the close relative. It has a narrower white collar than this species, and its white trailing wing edge is also narrow, sitting on the secondaries and a few inner primaries. These are the marks to check in flight. In Costa Rica the Lesser is a lowland resident of Caribbean valleys and slopes up to 800 m, and on the Pacific side it reaches at least 1,000 m. In the Kéköldi record the possible Great glided slowly, while two Lesser birds seen after it flew fast.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

In Costa Rica the name vencejo tijereta mayor is used. Other Spanish names for the species include vencejo golondrino mayor and macuá mayor, the last being the name used in Nicaragua. In Costa Rica the nickname Macuá belongs to the Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift, not to this bird.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican list (AOCR) marks it A-SC, an accidental or rare visitor with a status code, not a regular resident.

Photography tips

The Kéköldi bird was seen near 1 pm in good light under clear sky, circling a tower above the treetops. A tower or an open sky view helped the observer get a look.