Black-capped Swallow

About the Black-capped Swallow

The black-capped swallow (Atticora pileata) is a species of bird in the family Hirundinidae, the swallows and martins. It is found in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico. The black-capped swallow was described in 1858 as Atticora pileata. For much of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first it was reclassified in genus Notiochelidon. Based in part on a study published in 2005, beginning in 2016 taxonomic systems returned it to Atticora.

The black-capped swallow is monotypic. The black-capped swallow is about 11.5 to 13.5 cm (4.5 to 5.3 in) long and weighs about 12 g (0.42 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a glossy black head with brown-speckled white cheeks and throat. Their back is sepia brown, their rump a darker brown, and their uppertail coverts dark sooty brown. Their tail longish, forked, and dull sooty black. Their wing's lesser coverts are black to brownish black, their secondary and inner greater coverts are dark grayish brown, and their flight feathers brownish black. The center of their breast and their belly are white, their flanks grayish brown, and their undertail coverts sooty black or very... Wikipedia →