Horus, whose name this bird commemorates, was the ancient Egyptian god of the sun, son of Osiris and Isis.

[4] This species is now one of 20 swifts placed in the genus Apus that was introduced in 1777 by the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli.

It also occurs very discontinuously in much of the rest of the sub-Saharan region, with the Ethiopian mountains and the area from central Kenya into Uganda having large populations.

The Horus swift breeds in old burrows of bee-eaters, ground woodpeckers, kingfishers and martins, which are typically in natural or artificial sandy banks.

The flat nest of vegetation and hair, glued with saliva is built at the end of the tunnel and 1-4 eggs are laid.