Gray-rumped Swift - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by Thibaud
Yanachaga Chemillen National Park, Pasco, Peru
15 February 2020

Chaetura cinereiventris

Identification

10·5 cm

Short square tail

Distribution

Central and South America and the Caribbean
Central America: Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama
Caribbean (West Indies): Lesser Antilles, Windward Islands, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago
South America: Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina

Taxonomy

Subspecies

There are 7 subspecies^[1]:

C. c. phaeopygos:

Caribbean slope of eastern Nicaragua to Panama

C. c. occidentalis:

Western Colombia to western Ecuador and extreme north-western Peru

C. c. schistacea:

Eastern Colombia to western Venezuela (Mérida and Táchira)

C. c. lawrencei:

Grenada, Trinidad, Tobago, Isla Margarita and northern Venezuela

C. c. guianensis:

Tepuis of eastern Venezuela and western Guyana

C. c. sclateri:

Southern Colombia to southern Venezuela, north-western Brazil, eastern Peru and north-western Bolivia

C. c. cinereiventris:

Eastern Brazil to Paraguay and north-eastern Argentina (Misiones)

Habitat

Tropical lowland and montane evergreen forests.

Behaviour

Diet

Their diet consists of ants, bees, wasps, beetles and flies, all taken in flight.

References

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Lepage D. (2021) [Avibase - https://avibase.ca/0F898234]. Retrieved 24 May 2021
Chantler, P. and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Gray-rumped Swift (Chaetura cinereiventris), 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.grrswi1.01

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Gray-rumped Swift. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 16 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Gray-rumped_Swift

External Links

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