Margen
The common swift, the one that screams in flocks over the rooftops in summer, is almost unable to be on the ground: its legs are tiny and its wings are very long. Its place is the air, and it takes that to the extreme.
When the breeding season in Europe ends and it flies towards Africa, many swifts don't land again for months. A study that fitted them with tiny sensors confirmed that some individuals spent up to ten months in a row in the air. They eat insects on the wing, drink by skimming the surface of the water, and everything suggests they also sleep gliding at high altitude.
They only touch land to nest. The rest of their life is spent flying, so a young swift can cover millions of kilometres before it lands for the first time. For a swift, landing is almost the exception.