''Chaetura'' is a genus of needletail

swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIF ...

s found in the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

. Although they resemble

swallow The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...

s, the two are not at all closely related; this is instead a result of

convergent evolution Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last comm ...

. Some members of ''Chaetura'' are long-distance

migrants Migrant is a term that may refer to: Human migration *Human migration, including: **Emigration, leaving one's resident country with the intent to settle elsewhere. 1988 Webster's Definition. One who migrates, esp. from 1 region to another in sear ...

, while others are year-round residents. The genus name is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''khaite,'' for long flowing hair, and ''oura,'' for tail, referring to the stiff feathers projecting from the end of the tail. *

Grey-rumped swift The grey-rumped swift or gray-rumped swift (''Chaetura cinereiventris'') is a species of bird in subfamily Apodinae of the swift family Apodidae.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife Internationa ...

– ''Chaetura cinereiventris'' *

Band-rumped swift The band-rumped swift (''Chaetura spinicaudus'') 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 Trini ...

– ''Chaetura spinicaudus'' *

Lesser Antillean swift The Lesser Antillean swift (''Chaetura martinica'') is a species a species of bird in subfamily Apodinae of the swift family Apodidae.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital ch ...

– ''Chaetura martinica'' *

Costa Rican swift The Costa Rican swift (''Chaetura fumosa'') is a species of bird in subfamily Apodinae of the swift family Apodidae.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the bi ...

– ''Chaetura fumosa'' *

Pale-rumped swift The pale-rumped swift (''Chaetura egregia'') is a species of bird in subfamily Apodinae of the swift family Apodidae.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the bi ...

– ''Chaetura egregia'' *

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 Vaux's swift and Chapman's swift; in the past, the three were sometimes considered to ...

– ''Chaetura pelagica'' *

Vaux's swift Vaux's swift (''Chaetura vauxi'') is a small Swift (bird), 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 ...

– ''Chaetura vauxi'' *

Chapman's swift Chapman's swift (''Chaetura chapmani'') is a species of bird in subfamily Apodinae of the swift family Apodidae.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds ...

– ''Chaetura chapmani'' *

Ashy-tailed swift The ashy-tailed swift or Andre's swift (''Chaetura andrei'') is a Vulnerable species of bird in subfamily Apodinae of the swift family Apodidae. It is endemic to northern and central Venezuela. Taxonomy and systematics The taxonomy of this ...

– ''Chaetura andrei'' *

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 sw ...

– ''Chaetura meridionalis'' *

Short-tailed swift The short-tailed swift (''Chaetura brachyura'') is a bird in the Apodidae, or swift family. Taxonomy The species was first formally described as ''Acanthylis brachyura'' in 1846 by the Scottish naturalist Sir William Jardine, based on the obse ...

– ''Chaetura brachyura'' A

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

species, ''Chaetura baconica'', was described from

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...

deposits of

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

References

Bird genera {{Apodiformes-stub