Identified with hilly terrain, Indian swiftlet makes a surprise move, visiting a ‘flat’ estuary in Chennai

The bird was first believed to be a Dusky Crag Martin, and the photos were squatting in the memory card largely unseen, even less examined. Around a month later, a study of the photos by an eBird reviewer demanded a re-identification of the bird. And as it turned out, what had been seen on the last Sunday of October in 2025 was an altogether different feather, one spiralling into Chennai for the first time. The visitor to the Adyar Estuary, that day, that was mistaken for a Dusky Crag Martin was actually an Indian edible-nest swiftlet (Aerodramus unicolor), also known as the Indian swiftlet. Saravana Manian, the birder who photographed the bird, points out that Adyar Estuary is an unlikely terrain for the Indian swiftlet. He elaborates: “Previous records of the Indian swiftlet from Tamil Nadu have been from hilly or mountainous patches — Palani Hills, Kodaikanal, Sirumalai and the Coimbatore and Kanyakumari ranges of the Western Ghats. The bird is also found in Sri Lanka.”