Species: Cypseloides niger
Black Swift
Species
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Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Craniata
Class
Aves
Order
Apodiformes
Family
Apodidae
Genus
Cypseloides
NatureServe
Classification
Other Global Common Names
Vencejo Negro - martinet sombre
Informal Taxonomy
Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Other Birds
Formal Taxonomy
Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Apodiformes - Apodidae - Cypseloides - (both of South America) by some authors (AOU 1998).
Ecology and Life History
Short General Description
Black Swift; a small, black, aerial-feeding bird.
Migration
false - false - true - Breeding populations in U.S. and Canada make long migrations to winter range.
Non-migrant
false
Locally Migrant
false
Food Comments
Feeds on insects (e.g., flying ants, caddisflies, mayflies, beetles, flesh flies, hymenopterans). Catches insects in the air, often at great heights. Often forages with other swifts at leading edges of rainstorms (Costa Rica, Stiles and Skutch 1989).
Reproduction Comments
One egg is laid in June-July. Nestling is altricial. Young fledges in 45 days. Nests in small colonies.
Length
18
Weight
46
Conservation Status
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G4
Global Status Last Reviewed
1996-12-02
Global Status Last Changed
1996-12-02
Other Status
LC - Least concern
Distribution
Conservation Status Map
<img src="http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/GetMapGif?CA.AB=S1&CA.BC=S4&US.AK=__&US.CA=S2&US.CO=S3&US.ID=S1&US.MT=S1&US.NM=S2&US.OR=S2&US.UT=S1&US.WA=S3&US.WY=SH" alt="Conservation Status Map" style="width: 475px; height: auto;" />
Global Range
H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - BREEDS: locally from southeastern Alaska, British Columbia, and southwestern Alberta south through the Pacific states to southern California; northwestern Montana, Colorado, Utah, northern New Mexico (Johnson 1990), and southeastern Arizona (Knorr and Knorr 1990); locally in highlands from Nayarit, Puebla, and Veracruz south to Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica; locally in the West Indies in Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent (Sibley and Monroe 1990). WINTER RANGE is poorly known; northern populations may winter in South America, and the supposedly resident populations in Middle America and the Antilles may in fact also winter in South America, though direct evidence is lacking (Stiles and Negret 1994).
Global Range Code
H
Global Range Description
>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)