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ForestCavity nestTiny · 6 g
ID tip
This bird is shiny black-blue above, including its rump; sometimes looks black and hooded. Chest black; belly to flanks white with fine black speckles at margins. Wing tips are rounded; underwing is black. Tail rounded with shallow notch and tiny white panels. It is so similar to the white-rumped swiftlet that both its upperparts and underparts must be seen to distinguish between the two. It is 9 to 11.5 cm (3.5 to 4.5 in) in length. Its voice is a soft twittering.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
When to see the Glossy Swiftlet
One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 7 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is July, the month with the most records.
Where to see the Glossy Swiftlet
The map shades 4 countries with regular records, and 2 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.
About the Glossy Swiftlet
The glossy swiftlet is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It is found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and eastwards to New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Easily confused with
Linchi SwiftletCollocalia linchiThis bird is shiny blackish-brown above with a greenish gloss, including its rump; sometimes looks black and hooded.
Grey-rumped SwiftletCollocalia marginataThe grey-rumped swiftlet is 9–10 cm (3.5–3.9 in) in length with a square tail.
Pygmy SwiftletCollocalia troglodytesThe pygmy swiftlet is a species of swift in the family Apodidae.
Side by side: Glossy Swiftlet vs Plume-toed Swiftlet · Glossy Swiftlet vs Linchi Swiftlet · Glossy Swiftlet vs Grey-rumped Swiftlet
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