Birds of Peru

    APODIFORMES: Apodidae (Swifts)  
Genus: Chaetura (5 species, 11 worldwide)


Short-tailed Swift
Short-tailed Swift (Chaetura brachyura brachyura)
Mocagua, Amazonas, Colombia  
   
Photograph by Tom Friedel   © All Rights Reserved.

Small T-shaped swift with short buff-colored back end. Back and back of wings blue-black. Seen in groups of 1000. Descends to nest in hollow dead palms.

Chapman's Swift
Chapman's Swift (Chaetura chapmani)
Guyana  
   
Photograph by Dave Curtis     Copyright and usage info

A small brown swift with contrasting browns on top half (head and mantle darker). Compare to Vaux's Swift and Chimney Swift. Chapman's Swift as recently lumped with Amazonian Swift of the western Amazon basin.

Grey-rumped Swift
Grey-rumped Swift (Chaetura cinereiventris)
InĂ­rida, GuainĂ­a, Colombia  
   
Photograph by Robert Lockett   © All Rights Reserved.

Uniformly grey from below with light grey rump, and darker on back. Note wing shape and square tail.

No Image
Pale-rumped Swift (Chaetura egregia)
   



Chimney Swift
Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) Vulnerable
Texas, United States  
   
Photograph by Jim McCulloch     Copyright and usage info

A uniformly colored small swift which migrates from eastern North America, passing quickly through Central America, to South America. Vaux's Swift is similar, but has a paler throat and rump, and stops its migration in Central America.


© Tom Friedel - All Rights Reserved, except for images and data otherwise noted.       Colombia       Panama       Ecuador       Costa Rica       Mexico
Experimental sites:       Peru       Venezuela       The World       Brazil       Bolivia
Really Experimental sites:       Guyana       Cuba