Pale-rumped Swift
Chaetura egregia
Medium-sized swift with a strongly contrasting rump patch. Dark slaty gray, with a lighter gray throat and a large white rump patch. Paler, more contrasting throat, and much lighter rump than in the similar Gray-rumped Swift; Short-tailed Swift has a bright white rump patch like Pale-rumped, but has a shorter tail, bigger primary bulge, and pale undertail coverts (evenly gray in Pale-rumped). Readily associates with other swift species in flocks.
Identification
The pale-rumped swift is about 10.5 cm (4.1 in) long and weighs about 23 g (0.81 oz). It has a protruding head, a short square tail, and wings that bulge in the middle and somewhat hook at the end. The sexes are alike. Their upperparts are black with a bronze gloss and a whitish rump and uppertail coverts. Their underparts are mostly dark, with a pale throat and blackish undertail coverts.
Taxonomy
The pale-rumped swift has at times been treated as conspecific with the grey-rumped swift (C. cinereiventris). The two of them, the band-rumped swift (C. spinicaudus), and the Lesser Antillean swift (C. martinica) were at one time placed in genus Acanthylis. The pale-rumped swift is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Chaetura egregia
- Authority
- Todd, 1916
- Order
- Apodiformes
- Family
- Apodidae
- Genus
- Chaetura
Range and habitat
The pale-rumped swift is found in eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, western Brazil, and northwestern Bolivia and has been recorded as a vagrant in Colombia. It principally inhabits lowland tropical evergreen forest but also occurs over more open landscapes and urban areas.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The pale-rumped swift is thought to be a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>Like all swifts, the pale-rumped is an aerial insectivore. It often feeds with other species of swift and tends to stay in the lower part of the flock. No details of its diet are known.<p>Nothing is known about the pale-rumped swift's breeding phenology and its nest and eggs have not been described.<p>The pale-rumped swift's main vocalizations are "a single-noted 'tsee'...and more complex twittering calls such as 'tsee-titi' or 'titi-tsee-trtr'."
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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