The pygmy palm swift (''Tachornis furcata''), also known as the pygmy swift, 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 ...

. It is found in Colombia and

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 ...

.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

Taxonomy and systematics

The pygmy palm swift was at times placed in the

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 ...

genus ''Micropanyptila''. It was also previously lumped as a subspecies of what is now the

fork-tailed palm swift The fork-tailed palm swift or Neotropical palm swift (''Tachornis squamata'') is a species of bird in subfamily Apodinae of the swift family Apodidae. It is found across most of northern South America and on Trinidad and Tobago.HBW and BirdLif ...

(''Tachornis squamata'') in genus ''Reinarda''.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. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved July 24, 2022 It has two subspecies, the

nominate Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In th ...

''T. f. furcata'' and ''T. f. nigrodorsalis''.

Description

The pygmy palm swift is about long. It has long, thin, pointed wings and a long deeply forked tail. The sexes are alike. The nominate subspecies has entirely brown upperparts. Its whitish throat and upper belly are separated by a brown band, and the lower belly and undertail

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 ...

are brown. Subspecies ''T. f. nigrodorsalis'' has blacker upperparts than the nominate and its throat is whiter.Chantler, P., P. F. D. Boesman, and E. de Juana (2020). Pygmy Swift (''Tachornis furcata''), 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.pygswi1.01 retrieved October 7, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The nominate subspecies of pygmy palm swift is found in northeastern Colombia's

Norte de Santander Department North Santander (Spanish: Norte de Santander) () is a department of Northeastern Colombia. It is in the north of the country, bordering Venezuela. Its capital is Cúcuta, one of the country's major cities. North Santander is bordered by Vene ...

and the adjoining southern part of Venezuela's

Maracaibo Basin The Maracaibo Basin, also known as Lake Maracaibo natural region, Lake Maracaibo depression or Lake Maracaibo Lowlands, is a foreland basin and one of the eight natural regions of Venezuela, found in the northwestern corner of Venezuela in South A ...

. ''T. f. nigrodorsalis'' is found in the western part of the Maracaibo Basin. The species primarily 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 ...

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...

, and regrowing scrublands. It is also found in cultivated and other open areas as long as they contain palm trees.

Behavior

Movement

The pygmy palm swift is believed to be a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

Like all swifts, the pygmy palm swift is an aerial insectivore, but details of its diet are lacking. It usually forages in small flocks.

Breeding

The pygmy palm swift's breeding season has not been fully defined but could be as long as January to July. It makes a bag nest, mostly of feathers glued together with saliva, and hanging from the underside of a drooping palm frond. The clutch size, incubation period, and time to fledging are not known.

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 pygmy palm swift vocalizations and 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 ...

only one. The species' call is described as "buzzy 'bee-beez-beez-beez-be-be-be', accelerating and trailing off".

Status

The IUCN has assessed the pygmy palm swift as being of Least Concern, though it has a limited range and its population (of unknown size) is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. " appears that it is not a rare bird and currently does not require special status or conservation efforts."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1271008 pygmy palm swift Birds of Colombia Birds of Venezuela pygmy palm swift Taxonomy articles created by Polbot