The pale-rumped swift (''Chaetura egregia'') 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 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 ...

.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 6. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v6_Dec21.zip retrieved August 7, 2022 It is found in

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, Colombia,

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar language, Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechuan ...

, and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

.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 24 July 2022. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved July 24, 2022

Taxonomy and systematics

The pale-rumped swift has at times been treated as

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...

with the

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 Internation ...

(''C. cinereiventris''). The two of them, the

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 ...

(''C. spinicaudus''), and the

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 c ...

(''C. martinica'') were at one time placed in genus ''Acanthylis''.Chantler, P. and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Pale-rumped Swift (''Chaetura egregia''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.parswi1.01 retrieved October 6, 2022 The pale-rumped swift is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

Description

The pale-rumped swift is about long and weighs about . It has a protruding head, a short square tail, and wings that bulge in the middle and somewhat hook at the end. The sexes are alike. Their upperparts are black with a bronze gloss and a whitish rump and uppertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are s ...

. Their underparts are mostly dark, with a pale throat and blackish undertail coverts.

Distribution and habitat

The pale-rumped swift is found in eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, western Brazil, and northwestern Bolivia and has been recorded as a

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 ...

in Colombia. It principally inhabits lowland tropical

evergreen forest An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, Live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperat ...

but also occurs over more open landscapes and urban areas.

Behavior

Movement

The pale-rumped swift is thought to be a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

Like all swifts, the pale-rumped is an aerial insectivore. It often feeds with other species of swift and tends to stay in the lower part of the flock. No details of its diet are known.

Breeding

Nothing is known about the pale-rumped swift's breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...

and its nest and eggs have not been described.

Vocalization

The pale-rumped swift's main vocalizations are "a single-noted 'tsee'...and more complex twittering calls such as 'tsee-titi' or 'titi-tsee-trtr'."

Status

The IUCN has assessed the pale-rumped swift as being of Least Concern, though its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. It is generally thought to be one of the rarer members of genus ''Chaetura'' but at least in parts of Peru it is more common than some of the others and is abundant in parts of Ecuador.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1261422 pale-rumped swift Birds of the Amazon rainforest Birds of the Bolivian Amazon Birds of the Ecuadorian Amazon Birds of Peruvian Amazonia pale-rumped swift pale-rumped swift Taxonomy articles created by Polbot