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Chimney Swift | Chaetura pelagica
Schoorsteengierzwaluw | Vencejo de chimenea
The Chimney Swift breeds in eastern North America and winters in the western Amazon basin. On the way there and back the population passes through the guide area in spring and autumn, mainly along the Gulf coast of Mexico and the Caribbean side of Central America, sometimes in flocks of hundreds to thousands of birds. It is a small, dark swift that hunts with rapid, stiff wingbeats and short glides. Among the resident Chaetura swifts it often cannot be identified with certainty in the field.
Voice
A loud, dry, rapid twittering, chip-chip-chip, often accelerating into a rattling series; also single chip calls. Migrating flocks call a lot; the call is louder and less high-pitched than that of Vaux's Swift.
Recording: Stanislas Wroza — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
12–14 cm, with a cigar-shaped body, long, narrow, slightly curved wings and a short, rounded tail with spiny feather shafts. The plumage is uniformly dark greyish brown, with a paler grey throat and a rump barely paler than the back. Male and female are alike. In flight, rapid, jerky wingbeats alternate with short glides.
Confusion species
Vaux's Swift Chaetura vauxi is smaller and shorter, with shorter wings, a paler breast and a slightly paler rump; in the field the two species can often be told apart only by size and call, and many sightings remain unidentified. The Band-rumped Swift Chaetura spinicaudus, the Costa Rican Swift Chaetura fumosa, the Grey-rumped Swift Chaetura cinereiventris and the Short-tailed Swift Chaetura brachyura have a clearly paler rump or rump band. The American Black Swift Cypseloides niger is larger and blacker, with a longer, slightly forked tail and a slower flight.
Habitat
On migration in the airspace over almost any landscape: coastal plains and beaches, lowland forest and forest edges, open farmland, lakes and rivers, villages and towns. Hunts small flying insects in the air, often together with swallows and other swifts. Roosts in groups in chimneys, hollow trees or other vertical cavities. On migration mainly follows the lowlands.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Passage migrant through much of the guide area, most numerous along the Gulf coast of Tamaulipas and Veracruz, on the Yucatán Peninsula, in Belize and on the Caribbean side of Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama; scarcer on the Pacific side and inland. In north-eastern Mexico birds are occasionally also seen in June and July; breeding in the guide area has not been confirmed. Breeds in the eastern United States and south-eastern Canada; winters mainly in Peru, Ecuador, western Brazil and northern Chile.
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
The best chance is in October, when flocks move low along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Panama and along the Gulf coast of Veracruz after a cold front has passed, and in April. Single swifts among swallows over open ground or water deserve a second look; size, the long wings and the loud, dry call are the best clues.
Conservation status
Vulnerable according to the IUCN. The breeding population has declined sharply since the 1960s. Possible causes are the decline of flying insects, the loss or capping of chimneys for nesting and roosting, and storms during migration. No specific threats are known in the guide area.
Scientific name
Chaetura pelagica | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Hirundo Pelagica; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Chaetura was introduced in 1826 by Stephens. Chaetura is Greek, from khaitē 'hair, bristle' and oura 'tail', after the spiny projecting shafts of the tail feathers. pelagica is Latin for 'of the open sea' (Greek pelagikos); an odd name for a land bird, perhaps alluding to its wandering habits. The specimen the first description was based on came from South Carolina, United States.