white-throated needletail
needle-tailed swift
spine-tailed swift

The last sighting of a white-throated needletail was 22 years ago.

A relative of the common swift, the white-throated needletail is said to be the fastest bird in level flight.

Last month, about 30 birdwatchers travelled to Harris to catch sight of a white-throated needletail.

It tends to hunt higher than most of its relatives other than the white-throated needletail.

Migratory species include the flame robin, white-throated needletail and sacred kingfisher.

There had been only eight recorded sightings of the white-throated needletail in the UK since 1846.

The white-throated needletail's journey through northern Britain was enthusiastically tracked by several bird watchers.

Now 22 years later another White-throated Needletail turned up in the UK.

The white-throated needletail is a mid-sized bird, similar in size to an Alpine swift, but a different build, with a heavier barrel-like body.

Yesterday morning, the service tweeted: "The white-throated needletail on Harris flew into a wind turbine and has died.

Ninety-five percent of the records are the White-throated Needletail, which is a stubby, cigar-shaped bird with a broad body.

White-throated needletail (Hirundapus caudacutus)

The white-throated needletail, which breeds in Asia and winters in Australasia, was spotted on Harris.

SNH said these included the death of a rare white-throated needletail on the Western Isles in June.

The white-throated needletail (Hirundapus caudacutus), also known as needle-tailed swift or spine-tailed swift, is a large swift.

The white-throated needletail was first described by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 under the binomial name Hirundo caudacuta.

The brown-backed needletail is a very large swift, and at 23 cm is bigger than the Alpine swift and the white-throated needletail.

The Rare Bird Alert, an online service that notifies users of sightings, had passed on reports of the white-throated needletail on Tuesday.

The White-throated Needletail - the world's fastest flying bird - was thousand of miles off course after turning up at Tarbert on the Isle of Harris.

Sightings of the White-throated Needletail are incredibly rare in the UK so when one was spotted on the the Isles of Harris it caused quite a stir with Twitchers.

There hasn't been a sighting of a White-throated Needletail in the United Kingdom for 22 years, so nearly 80 birdwatchers flocked to Scotland this week to get a look, the Telegraph reported.

The White-throated Needletail, also known as the Needle-tailed Swift or Spine-tailed Swift, is known to fly up at speeds of up to 69mph, although there are unconfirmed reports of them reaching 105mph.

Also, the siting of turbines in environmentally sensitive areas has led to the deaths of migratory and native birds, such as on Harris where a rare visitor to Scotland, a white-throated needletail was witnessed being killed by a turbine.

Currawong, Friarbirds as hosts White-throated Needletail End of October till April Sacred Kingfisher September till March Rainbow Bee-eater Late September till March Dollarbird Late September.

Most take it in good heart, but for the super royalists this must be like rushing to spot the first white-throated needletail to arrive on Britain's shores in a decade only to discover it has been killed in the blades of a wind turbine.