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American Cliff Swallow | Petrochelidon pyrrhonota
Amerikaanse klifzwaluw | Golondrina risquera
The American Cliff Swallow is a stocky swallow with a square tail, a pale orange-buff rump and a dark throat. It breeds in colonies and builds gourd-shaped mud nests against cliffs, bridges and buildings. In the guide area it breeds in northern and central Mexico; through the rest of the area it migrates in large numbers to and from South America in spring and autumn.
Voice
A low, soft, purring purr or vrrt; at the colony a series of creaking, squeaking and grating notes.
Recording: Stanislas Wroza — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
13–14 cm, with broad, triangular wings and a short, square tail. Crown and back dark blue, the back with pale streaks; rump pale orange-buff. Throat and cheeks dark chestnut with a blackish patch on the lower throat, nape grey. The forehead is pale buff to white in most northern birds, but cinnamon in breeders of southern and western Mexico. Breast dull grey-brown, belly whitish. Young birds are duller, with a paler, mottled throat.
Confusion species
Cave Swallow Petrochelidon fulva has a pale buff throat and cheeks and a dark chestnut forehead. Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica has a deeply forked tail without a pale rump. Southern Rough-winged Swallow Stelgidopteryx ruficollis also has a pale rump, but plain brown upperparts and a cinnamon throat without a dark patch.
Habitat
Open country, often near water: river valleys, lakes, pastures, fields, ravines and villages. It hunts flying insects in the air, often high. It breeds in colonies, sometimes of hundreds of pairs, under rock overhangs, bridges, overpasses and eaves. The nest is a closed gourd of mud pellets with an entrance tunnel.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Breeds in northern and central Mexico, south to about the central highlands. Passage migrant throughout the guide area, most numerous along the coasts and in the lowlands of Central America. Also breeds across much of North America; winters in southern South America.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In Mexico colonies are often found under bridges over rivers. In April and September large flocks sometimes pass along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Panama, often with Barn Swallows.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Numerous and widespread; it has benefited from bridges and buildings as nest sites.
Scientific name
Petrochelidon pyrrhonota | (Vieillot, 1817)
Vieillot described the species in 1817 as Hirundo pyrrhonota; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Petrochelidon was introduced in 1851 by Cabanis. Petrochelidon comes from the Greek petros, 'rock', and khelidōn, 'swallow' — for the cliff swallows' habit of building their mud nests against rock faces. pyrrhonota is Greek, from purrhos 'flame-coloured' and nōtos 'back', after the rusty rump. The specimen the first description was based on came from Paraguay.