The ashy-tailed swift or Andre's swift (''Chaetura andrei'') is a

Vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatening its survival and reproduction improve. Vulne ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in subfamily Apodinae of the swift family

Apodidae The swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds. They are superficially similar to swallows, but are not closely related to any passerine species. Swifts are placed in the order Apodiformes with hummingbirds. The treeswifts are closely ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

to northern and central

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

of this species is confusing. The larger and far more widespread

Sick's swift Sick's swift (''Chaetura meridionalis'') is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It was previously considered conspecific with the smaller ashy-tailed swift, but a study published in 1997 found that Sick's swift was closer to the chimney ...

was previously regarded as a subspecies of the ashy-tailed swift, but Marín (1997) found that Sick's swift is more closely related to the

chimney swift The chimney swift (''Chaetura pelagica'') is a bird belonging to the swift family Apodidae. A member of the genus ''Chaetura'', it is closely related to both the Vaux's swift and the Chapman's swift; in the past, the three were sometimes consider ...

. Marín further suggested that the ashy-tailed swift was identical to

Vaux's swift Vaux's swift (''Chaetura vauxi'') is a small swift native to North America, Central America, and northern South America. It was named for the American scientist William Sansom Vaux. Description This is a small swift, even compared to other '' ...

of the subspecies ''aphanes''. If following this approach, ''andrei'' (with ''aphanes'' as a junior synonym) becomes a subspecies of Vaux's swift. This placement, however, was considered mistaken by Restall et al (2006), who state that ''andrei'' and ''aphanes'', while virtually identical under normal field conditions, actually do differ and also have different behavior and habitat preferences (ashy-tailed swift prefers forested lowland rivers, while Vaux's swift race ''aphanes'' prefers mountain slopes). As of early 2020, taxonomists retained ashy-tailed as a subspecies of Vaux's swift. A detailed study by Chesser et al (2018) supported Restall et al's assertion that ashy-tailed swift is a separate species from Vaux's swift. Based on those data, the South American Classification Committee of the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

(AOS) split ashy-tailed from Vaux's as its own species in June 2020.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 08 June 2020. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. http://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved June 10, 2020 The

International Ornithological Congress International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

(IOC) followed suit in January 2021.

Description

Ashy-tailed swift is very similar to the widespread Vaux's swift. It is about long and weighs . The wings, like those of most swifts, are long and pointed. It is grayish brown overall, paler on the underside. The ashy-tailed's throat and abdomen tend to be browner than those of Vaux's, the back lighter brown, and the rump paler.Schwitters, L., D. Schwitters, E. L. Bull, and C. T. Collins (2021). Ashy-tailed Swift (''Chaetura andrei''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (P. G. Rodewald, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.astswi1.01 retrieved 7 October 2022

Distribution and habitat

Ashy-tailed swift is

to Venezuela, found in deciduous forest of the eastern lowlands and the eastern Coastal Range.

Behavior

Almost nothing is known about the ashy-tailed swift's feeding, breeding, and other behavior. It is an aerial insectivore like all swifts, and its diet is assumed to be insects and spiders.

Vocalization

As of late 2022

xeno-canto xeno-canto is a citizen science project and repository in which volunteers record, upload and annotate recordings of birdsong and bird calls. Since it began in 2005, it has collected over 575,000 sound recordings from more than 10,000 species wo ...

had no recordings of the ashy-tailed swift, though one recording attributed to Vaux's swift was taken within its range. The

Cornell Lab of Ornithology The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a member-supported unit of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, which studies birds and other wildlife. It is housed in the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in Sapsucker Woods Sanctuar ...

Macaulay Library The Macaulay Library is the world's largest archive of animal sounds. It includes more than 33 million photographs, 1.2 million audio recordings, and over two hundred thousand videos covering 96 percent of the world's bird species. There are an ever ...

had very few recordings. The species' call is describec as a " gh-pitched, rapid chipping and buzzy insect-like twitter given in flight."

Status

The IUCN has classified ashy-tailed swift as Vulnerable due to its estimated population of 2500 to 10,000 mature individuals that is declining due to loss of its forest habitat.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4806224 ashy-tailed swift Endemic birds of Venezuela ashy-tailed swift