Peta Constable reports on Wharfedale Naturalists presentation “A year in the Life of Swifts” LOOK no feet! Apus Apus the Common swift, eats, drinks, mates, preens and sleeps (half its brain awake and half asleep) on the wing. This gave rise the old belief that Swifts had no legs or feet. Thus the family name for all swifts, Apodidae, “footless”. Swifts, of course, have feet but land on them only when they enter their nesting site, lay eggs and rear their chicks. The rest of the time, sometimes for three continuous years, they are on the wing. A swift that lives 18 years may cover 4 million miles.