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Pallid or Common Swift - Southern Spain May 2010 (1 Viewer)

kilbey252

Dave Kilbey
Hi all

Taken in southern Spain I'm not 100% sure which of the attached images are of Pallid or Common Swifts.

The more I compare to photos of swifts (as opposed to text book guides) the less certain I become about the matter. The flock I was photographing definitely had a mixture of species.... Any thoughts would be great!

My initial take on the matter was:

5232 - common
5372 - common
1892 - pallid


Yours (slighly confused)

Dave Kilbey

www.davekilbey.co.uk
 

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I'd say 1 & 3 are definitely Pallid Swifts. You can clearly see the light fringing on the body feathers & the dark eye patch is also a good indicator for Pallid.
2 could also be a Pallid but the angle of the shot makes it a little more dificult to judge the plumage correctly.
 
I'd say 1 & 3 are definitely Pallid Swifts. You can clearly see the light fringing on the body feathers & the dark eye patch is also a good indicator for Pallid.
2 could also be a Pallid but the angle of the shot makes it a little more dificult to judge the plumage correctly.

Very nice photos!

I agree with Parker. Number 2 has dark underwing coverts, only faint light fringing on body feathers and pointed wings so it is Common Swift.
 
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Yes, 1 & 3 are clearly Pallids. People seem less sure about 2 but I think that too is a Pallid. The lighting makes this a more tricky bird but the feathers on undertail coverts clearly show obvious pale edging - too much surely for a Common Swift. For some reason the body looks a little more blurred than the undertail which may explain the apparent lack of pale tips. Pallids do usually show blunter wings, this is not always reflected in photos where a certain angle or the way the wings are held at that instant can make them (as here) look pointed,
 
"The lighting makes this a more tricky bird"

"Pallids do usually show blunter wings, this is not always reflected in photos where a certain angle or the way the wings are held at that instant can make them (as here) look pointed,"

I fully agree with these. However, a (quite) recent ID-article of Pallid Swift in Dutch Birding states that undertail coverts should have LESS prominent fringing than belly in Pallid Swift so there should be contrast between darker utc's and belly. In Common Swift utc's should be evenly fringed with belly. This would favor Common from this single pic.
I tried to look if this is true and it indeed seems to be in most cases, but not in all. See f.e. pics in tarsiger.com.
 
Thank you guys. That's helped. I find it very tricky as the light can really affect how much feather fringe detail gets pulled out. I was looking through a whole bunch of images on various websites and in the end gave up! So, to summarise the second bird is likely to be a common but could also be pallid. Would a more close-up crop of the bird help to settle it???
 
Two more pics....

Hiya

Ok, a closer crop of the contentious swift from the first post and another for comparison which even I'm sure is a Pallid!! Does this help to clinch that the first one is a common swift or is the jury still out??

Thanks for your help guys!!

Cheers
Dave
 

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Actually it helps pretty much. Now i'm even more sure that it really is a Common Swift. You can clearly see very limited pale fringes in underparts and dark underwingcoverts. Also the head looks rather dark.

Astonishing photos!
 
Can we get a composite of the two in post 8 and get it uploaded to the Opus. I've never seen any images depicting the differences between the two so clearly! Amazing shots!
 
Can we get a composite of the two in post 8 and get it uploaded to the Opus. I've never seen any images depicting the differences between the two so clearly! Amazing shots!

A faster solution was to upload a link to this thread in the Opus pages of both species, something I just did.

Even so, these are some amazing shots, more people will enjoy them if they are also uploaded to the gallery here :t:

Niels
 
Thank you all for the lovely comments. Obviously these are close crops of the birds and so don't represent the original capture (the birds were far smaller in the frame originally) but the good thing is they're sharp and conveniently similarly positioned to make comparing them side by side a lot easier.

Would you like me to do anything with the images such as upload them somewhere? I'm happy to create a single composite image for you in Photoshop too if that would help?

Many thanks again for all the help and the encouraging comments - very much appreciated!!

Cheers

Dave

http://www.davekilbeyphotography.co.uk/
 
Yes, some very good shots. Having reconsidered and looked more closely at the new photo, I agree that the bird under debate is a Common Swift. It's interesting to note, though, how, due the the angle, one wing looks very pointed and the other somewhat blunt!
 
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