Fastest bird swift

we have seen them flying at about 9000 feet. If they need to they can fly twice that high. It is reported to reach a top speed of 169km/hour. The needle-tailed swift or spine-tailed swift is commonly reported as the fastest bird in level flight. There's still an awful lot that we don't know about them, making them a real Mystery Bird. They feed, drink, mate and sleep on the wing, and only land to breed. So a young Swift will spend its first two or three years in constant flight before it nests. Because they never land on the ground, and are so fast and so totally aerial. Swifts are amazing, beautiful birds. Supreme aerialists, they spend almost all their life in the air, a lot of that at low level, feeding on airborne insects.