Little Swift (Apus) [XC315558]
by Espen Quinto-Ashman from Como\u00e9 River, Kafolo, Ivory Coast (flight call)
Little Swift (Apus) [XC877813]
by Paul Archer from Northern Tuli Game Reserve, Botswana (call)
Subspecies
Forms superspecies with House Swift (Apus nipalensis), with which often considered conspecific. Birds of sub-Saharan Africa formerly treated as subspecies abessynicus [sic], and those of coastal Limpopo and Transkei as subspecies gyratus.
The following 6 subspecies are recognised:
galilejensis (Antinori, 1855) - North-western Africa east to Pakistan, and south of Sahara in eastern Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and north-western Somalia.
aerobates Brooke, 1969 - Mauritania east to Somalia and south to Transkei (eastern South Africa).
bannermani Hartert, 1928 - Bioko, Príncipe and Sío Tomé, in Gulf of Guinea.
theresae Meinertzhagen, R, 1949 - Western and southern Angola to southern Zambia and south through southern Africa.
affinis (Gray, 1830) - Southern Somalia to northern Mozambique (including Zanzibar and Pemba), and east to India south of Himalayas and east of Pakistan; some birds winter in India and presumably Africa.
singalensis Madarász, 1911 - Southern India and Sri Lanka.