The Chilean swallow (''Tachycineta leucopyga'') is a species of

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 the family

Hirundinidae 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 ...

. It breeds in Chile and

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and ...

, migrating north as far as Bolivia, Paraguay, and Rio Grande do Sul.

Taxonomy and etymology

The new genus ''Tachycineta'' was created for this group of swallows by German ornithologist

Jean Cabanis Jean Louis Cabanis (8 March 1816 – 20 February 1906) was a German ornithologist. Cabanis was born in Berlin to an old Huguenot family who had moved from France. Little is known of his early life. He studied at the University of Berlin from 183 ...

in 1850. The current genus name ''

Tachycineta ''Tachycineta'' is a genus of birds in the swallow family Hirundinidae. There are nine described species all restricted to the Americas. These are slender swallows with forked tails. Most species have a metallic green back, green or blue head ...

'', is from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

''takhukinetos'', "moving quickly", and the specific ''meyeni'' commemorates Prussian botanist and collector

Franz Meyen Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen (28 June 1804 – 2 September 1840) was a Prussian physician and botanist. Meyen was born in Tilsit, East Prussia. In 1830 he wrote ''Phytotomie'', the first major study of plant anatomy. Between 1830 and 1832, he too ...

. Some consider the species name to be ''leucopyga'', which is what the species name originally was. This species, along with the

white-rumped swallow The white-rumped swallow (''Tachycineta leucorrhoa'') is a species of bird in the family Hirundinidae. First described and given its binomial name by French ornithologist Louis Vieillot in 1817, it was for many years considered a subspecies of ...

, ''T. leucorrhoa'', form a superspecies. This species is monotypic.

Description

The Chilean swallow is about in length and weighs . It is glossy blue-black above and white below with a white rump. Its wings and tail are black, with white tips on its inner secondaries and its

tertials Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tai ...

. Their underwing coverts and auxiliaries are both grey. The Chilean swallow's bill and legs are black. The sexes are alike, and the juveniles are duller and browner. It is similar to the

, but lacks the white forehead of that species and has bluer upperparts and grey underwing-coverts. In addition to this, the breeding ranges of the two have almost no overlap. Tachycineta_leucopyga-perched.jpg, White belly,

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

Tachycineta_leucopyga-rump.jpg, White rump patch,

Distribution

This swallow is native to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubou ...

, Paraguay, and Uruguay. It is

vagrant Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, tempora ...

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song_type = , song = , image_map = South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in United Kingdom.svg , map_caption = Location of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic Oc ...

. This swallow can also be found in Peru, but its origin is uncertain. Its breeding range is from the

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert ( es, Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in the ...

in Chile and most of Argentina to the southern tip of South America. It is a year-round resident to the northern part of its range, but it is known to be migratory in the southern part. It is not well known where this population winters, but it seems to winter in northern Argentina, southern Brazil, Uruguay, and possibly Bolivia.

Behaviour

Breeding

This species has been seen to nest in both artificial and natural cavities, usually near water. They are usually solitary, although they will occasionally nest in loose groups if nest sites are near each other. Their nests are made from mud or dry grass and are lined with feathers. This swallow is a

seasonal breeder Seasonal breeders are animal species that successfully mate only during certain times of the year. These times of year allow for the optimization of survival of young due to factors such as ambient temperature, food and water availability, and ch ...

. It usually breeds from September and sometimes early October, especially near the tip of South America, to February. In Chile, it usually raises two to three broods. The Chilean swallow usually has a

clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts ...

of four to six white eggs. The eggs measure and weigh around . After the breeding season, it is found that the Chilean swallow forms flocks.

Diet

These birds are

insectivore A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...

s, usually feeding on flying insects. They usually forage alone or in small groups. When foraging, their flight paths are low and direct.

Status

The Chilean swallow is evaluated to be

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. Th ...

by the IUCN. The justification for this is the fact that the species is believed to have a range of about , its population is increasing, and the population is not believed to be small enough to be

vulnerable Vulnerable may refer to: General * Vulnerability * Vulnerability (computing) * Vulnerable adult * Vulnerable species Music Albums * ''Vulnerable'' (Marvin Gaye album), 1997 * ''Vulnerable'' (Tricky album), 2003 * ''Vulnerable'' (The Used album) ...

under the population size criterion.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q27075442, from2=Q426223 Chilean swallow Birds of Chile Birds of Patagonia Chilean swallow Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN