Chestnut-collared Swift

Overview

The chestnut-collared swift (Streptoprocne rutila) is a small bird in the swift family Apodidae found from Mexico and Trinidad south to Peru and Bolivia. It is classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, with an estimated population of at least 50,000 mature individuals.

Identification

• Size 12 to 14 cm long, weighing about 21 g, with broad wings and a wide slightly notched tail.
• Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a sooty blackish brown crown and back, a narrow black patch around the eye, and grayish brown cheeks and throat mixed with dull rufous feathers.
• Males display a wide rufous collar across the lower throat and upper breast extending to the nape, while females have paler plumage and a much smaller or absent collar.
• Flight call described as buzzy, resembling electric crackles or static, occasionally strung into a chatter.

Habitat

Inhabits a variety of landscapes including humid montane and pine-oak forests, semi-deciduous forest, evergreen forest, semi-open areas, and small human communities. Elevation ranges from a few hundred meters to as high as 3,100 m in Bolivia.

Diet

An aerial insectivore that feeds on several families of insects, with some studies showing a preference for flying ants and others for small beetles. Often forages in flocks of 10 to 20 birds, sometimes higher numbers, and tends to stay near the top of mixed-species flocks.

Did you know?

The subspecies S. r. brunnitorques has been treated as a separate species but is now suspected of not being even a separate subspecies, as no clear diagnosis of distinctions between it and the nominate has been published.