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Band-rumped Swift

Chaetura spinicaudus

Least Concern · IUCN Red List

LCLeast ConcernInvertebratesForestCavity nestSmall · 16 g
Band-rumped Swift (Chaetura spinicaudus), photo 1
Photo: Christoph Moning · CC BY 4.0
Band-rumped Swift (Chaetura spinicaudus), photo 2
Photo: Christoph Moning · CC BY 4.0
Band-rumped Swift (Chaetura spinicaudus), photo 3
Photo: scaup · CC BY 4.0
Band-rumped Swift (Chaetura spinicaudus), photo 4
Photo: scaup · CC BY 4.0
Band-rumped Swift (Chaetura spinicaudus), photo 5
Photo: Jan Ebr & Ivana Ebrová · CC BY 4.0
Band-rumped Swift (Chaetura spinicaudus), photo 6
Photo: Jan Ebr & Ivana Ebrová · CC BY 4.0
Band-rumped Swift (Chaetura spinicaudus), photo 7
Photo: Melissa McMasters from Memphis, TN, United States · CC BY 2.0
Band-rumped Swift (Chaetura spinicaudus), photo 8
Photo: Christoph Moning · CC BY 4.0
Band-rumped Swift (Chaetura spinicaudus), photo 9
Photo: scaup · CC BY 4.0
Band-rumped Swift (Chaetura spinicaudus), photo 10
Photo: Jan Ebr & Ivana Ebrová · CC BY 4.0

ID tip

The band-rumped swift is 10.5 to 12.6 cm (4.1 to 5.0 in) long and weighs 13.8 to 18.5 g (0.49 to 0.65 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. Adults of the nominate subspecies have black-brown upperparts with a white band on the rump. Their underparts are dark with a slightly paler throat. Juveniles have white tips on some wing feathers. Subspecies C. s. aetherodroma is smaller than the nominate; its rump patch is grayer and its throat paler. Voice: The nominate subspecies of band-rumped swift "gives a diagnostic bisyllabic 'pseee-trr' or more burry 'prrrree-trtr'" and sometimes also "several repeated notes 'tsee-tsee-tsee'". The vocalizations of subspecies C. s. aetherodroma are not well known.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Band-rumped Swift

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is February, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Band-rumped Swift

Regular rangeRare visitor

The map shades 9 countries with regular records, and 1 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Panama Brazil Guyana Trinidad & Tobago Colombia French Guiana Suriname Ecuador Venezuela

Recorded as a rare visitor in Costa Rica.

About the Band-rumped Swift

The band-rumped swift is a species of bird in subfamily Apodinae of the swift family Apodidae. It is found from Panama south through Colombia into Ecuador, east from Venezuela into the Guianas and Brazil, and on Trinidad.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Costa Rican Swift (Chaetura fumosa) Costa Rican SwiftChaetura fumosaThe Costa Rican swift is about 11 cm (4.3 in) long. Pale-rumped Swift (Chaetura egregia) Pale-rumped SwiftChaetura egregiaThe pale-rumped swift is about 10.5 cm (4.1 in) long and weighs about 23 g (0.81 oz). Chapman's SwiftChaetura chapmaniChapman's swift is 13 to 14 cm (5.1 to 5.5 in) long and weighs 20.75 to 28 g (0.73 to 0.99 oz).

Side by side: Band-rumped Swift vs Grey-rumped Swift · Band-rumped Swift vs Sick's Swift · Band-rumped Swift vs Short-tailed Swift · Band-rumped Swift vs Costa Rican Swift · Band-rumped Swift vs Pale-rumped Swift

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