Ashy-tailed Swift

About the Ashy-tailed Swift

The ashy-tailed swift or Andre's swift (Chaetura andrei) is a Vulnerable species of bird in subfamily Apodinae of the swift family Apodidae. It is endemic to northern and central Venezuela. The taxonomy of this species is confusing. The larger and far more widespread Sick's swift was previously regarded as a subspecies of the ashy-tailed swift, but Marín (1997) found that Sick's swift is more closely related to the chimney swift. Marín further suggested that the ashy-tailed swift was identical to Vaux's swift of the subspecies aphanes. If following this approach, andrei (with aphanes as a junior synonym) becomes a subspecies of Vaux's swift. This placement, however, was considered mistaken by Restall et al. (2006), who state that andrei and aphanes, while virtually identical under normal field conditions, actually do differ and also have different behavior and habitat preferences (ashy-tailed swift prefers forested lowland rivers, while Vaux's swift race aphanes prefers mountain slopes). As of early 2020, taxonomists retained ashy-tailed as a subspecies of Vaux's swift.

A detailed study by Chesser et al. (2018) supported Restall et al.'s assertion that... Wikipedia →