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Southern Rough-winged Swallow | Stelgidopteryx ruficollis
Zuid-Amerikaanse ruwvleugelzwaluw | Golondrina alirrasposa sureña
The Southern Rough-winged Swallow is a small brown swallow that breeds commonly on Trinidad, especially along rivers and at steep sandy or earthen banks. The name refers to the stiff, recurved barbs on the outer webs of the male's primaries, which cannot be seen in the field. The form on Trinidad is Stelgidopteryx ruficollis aequalis.
Voice
A rising, rough djreeet or a softer zwee, often repeated, and twittering and buzzy notes in flight.
Recording: Mateus Gonçalves Santos — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
12–14 cm, compact, with fairly broad wings and a square or slightly notched tail. The upperparts are light brown to grey-brown, the rump slightly paler; wings and tail are darker brown. The throat is warm ochre to cinnamon, the breast and flanks grey-brown and the belly whitish, sometimes with a yellowish tinge. The sexes are alike. Juveniles have cinnamon edges to the wing coverts, which show as faint wing bars.
Confusion species
Northern Rough-winged Swallow Stelgidopteryx serripennis has a dull grey-brown throat without ochre and a rump the same colour as the back; it is practically absent from the south of the region. Sand Martin Riparia riparia has a white throat and a sharp brown breast band. Brown-chested Martin Progne tapera is much larger, with a white throat and a breast band. Juvenile White-winged Swallows Tachycineta albiventer are greyer, with white on the wing and a white rump.
Habitat
Open ground near water: rivers, streams, ponds, road cuttings, quarries, farmland and forest edges, into villages. It hunts small flying insects low over water and open ground. It nests singly or in small groups in a hole in a steep bank, and also in walls and pipes; on Trinidad mainly from March to June.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Resident on Trinidad, where it is common in the lowlands and hills. A vagrant on Tobago and the ABC Islands. Outside the region from Honduras through Central America and much of South America to northern Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
On Trinidad along rivers and at bridges, where pairs hunt low over the water and often perch on wires or bare branches by the bank. The ochre throat is the key feature and is best seen on perched birds.
Conservation status
Least Concern. A common species with a large range that also uses man-made banks such as road cuttings and quarries.
Scientific name
Stelgidopteryx ruficollis | (Vieillot, 1817)
Vieillot described the species in 1817 as Hirundo ruficollis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Stelgidopteryx was introduced in 1858 by Baird. Stelgidopteryx is Greek, from stelgis 'scraper' and pterux 'wing', after the rough, serrated outer web of the outermost primary. ruficollis is Latin, from rufus 'rufous' and collum 'neck', after the rufous throat. The specimen the first description was based on came from Brazil.