Mascarene Swiftlet
Aerodramus francicus
Small gray swift with a slightly paler rump and belly. Flight is fast but erratic, with the wings pushed forward. Nests in caves, but can be seen in flight over all habitats on the islands of Mauritius and Reunion. The calls include high-pitched twitters and echolocation clicks. Usually easy to identify, as it is the only resident swift on the Mascarenes. Occurs alongside Mascarene Martin, but distinguished by the gray rather than brown overall coloration, unstreaked underparts, and more erratic flight style.
Taxonomy
The Mascarene swiftlet was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the swifts and swallows in the genus Hirundo and coined the binomial name Hirundo francica. Gmelin based his description on "La petite hirondelle noire à croupion gris" that had been described in 1779 by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon from a specimen collected on the "Île de France" (Mauritius) in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. A hand-coloured illustration was also published. The Mascarene swiftlet is now placed with 27 other swiftlets in the genus Aerodramus that was introduced in 1906 by the American ornithologist Harry C. Oberholser. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek aēr meaning "air" with -dromos meaning"-racer" (from trekhō "to run"). The specific epithet francicus signifies the "Île de France", the type locality.<p>Two subspecies are recognised:
- Scientific name
- Aerodramus francicus
- Authority
- (Gmelin, JF, 1789)
- Order
- Apodiformes
- Family
- Apodidae
- Genus
- Aerodramus
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
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