Birds of the World

No Image
Ashy-tailed Swift (Chaetura andrei) Vulnerable Range: SA: e Venezuela

Not well known. Found in east Venezuela and once considered a subspecies of Vaux's swift. Prefers forested lowland rivers, while Vaux's swift race 'aphanes' prefers mountain slopes (Wikipedia).


Short-tailed Swift (Chaetura brachyura brachyura) Range: MA, SA: Panama through Amazonia Mocagua, Amazonas, Colombia
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.

Small T-shaped swift with short buff-colored back end. Back and back of wings blue-black. Seen in groups of 1000. Descends to nest in hollow dead palms.


Chapman's Swift (Chaetura chapmani) Range: MA, SA: Panama to ne Brazil and w Amazonia Guyana
Photograph by Dave Curtis Copyright and usage info This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. In short: you are free to share the file for non-commercial purposes under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.

A small brown swift with contrasting browns on top half (head and mantle darker). Compare to Vaux's Swift and Chimney Swift. Chapman's Swift as recently lumped with Amazonian Swift of the western Amazon basin.


Grey-rumped Swift (Chaetura cinereiventris) Range: MA, SA: widespread Inírida, Guainía, Colombia
Photograph by Robert Lockett © All Rights Reserved.

Uniformly grey from below with light grey rump, and darker on back. Note wing shape and square tail.

No Image
Pale-rumped Swift (Chaetura egregia) Range: SA: w Amazonia

No Image
Costa Rican Swift (Chaetura fumosa) Range: MA, SA: Costa Rica, Panama and n Colombia

No Image
Lesser Antillean Swift (Chaetura martinica) Range: NA: Lesser Antilles


Sick's Swift (Chaetura meridionalis) Range: SA: s Brazil to e Bolivia, Paraguay and n Argentina Pousada Oikos (Josiél Briet), São Paulo, Brazil
Photograph by Matt Grube © All Rights Reserved.

Austral migrant from east central South America to north South America. Note uniform brown and short square tail.


Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) Vulnerable Range: NA: sc, se Canada and c, e USA Texas, United States
Photograph by Jim McCulloch Copyright and usage info This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share a d make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one.

A uniformly colored small swift which migrates from eastern North America, passing quickly through Central America, to South America. Vaux's Swift is similar, but has a paler throat and rump, and stops its migration in Central America.


Band-rumped Swift (Chaetura spinicaudus spinicaudus) Range: MA, SA: Panama to c Brazil Manuas, Brazil
Photograph by Cameron Rutt © All Rights Reserved.


Vaux's Swift (Chaetura vauxi) Range: NA, MA, SA: w Canada to n SA Sunnyvale, California,
Photograph by Julio Mulero Copyright and usage info This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported. In short: you are free to share the file for non-commercial purposes under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Northern migrant. Migrates from northwest United States and southwest Canada to Central America and the northernmost parts of South America. Similar to Chimney Swift, but note pale throat and rump.