birding-aus

Swifts

To: martin cachard <>
Subject: Swifts
From:
Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2013 15:25:47 +1100
G'day Martin

Sorry for the delay - my e-mail program has crashed and doing everything from 
web-mail is taking longer.

I think all of your points for separating FTS from HS are valid.  Quite a few 
observers are seeing either moulting FTS or non-moulting HS at the moment and 
at least one of them looks valid, for a claim to HS.

If you can see all the features you have mentioned then I think you can ID the 
bird.  Problem is when the bird is too far away or it just whizzes past once, 
and we are tempted to see what we want to see, we may be deceived.

There are some photos of HS at:
www.google.com.au/images?q=Apus+nipalensis+photo&hl=en-AU&gbv=2&gs_l=heirloom-hp.3...2976.11829.0.12307.18.17.1.0.0.0.201.2740.0j14j1.15.0...0.0...1c.1.Q9qgY520-wo&sa=X&oi=image_result_group

But be warned: at least one of the initial photos labelled HS is a FTS - which 
becomes clear as you go into individual photos.

Happy swift watching

Mike Tarburton
========


> martin cachard <> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi Dom, Alan, Mike & all other swift enthusiasts...
> 
> I think that it is very important when looking through groups of 
> Fork-tailed Swifts for House Swifts that a number of things need to be 
> considered...
> 
> There a usually a high proportion of Fork-tails visiting our parts 
> undergoing some tail &/or some wing moult, giving them a rather similar 
> shape to House Swifts. Also to compound the ID difficulty, the white 
> throat patch is rather variable amongst Fork-tails as well, with most 
> showing the usual smaller & more diffuse white patch, whilst some others 
> do show a brighter white & more clear-cut throat patch (so that it 
> resembles the throat of a House Swift).
> 
> What I have also looked for to help i.d. House Swifts are the darker 
> underparts that lack the paler edges/tips typical of Fork-taileds in 
> fresh plumage, which most are (I think?!) when in these parts in summer.
> 
> Therefore, I think if you have a short & broad tailed swift with shorter 
> & slightly broader wings than a Fork-tail, combined with a bright white 
> & clear-cut throat patch (ie. throat patch like a needletail), & then 
> combined with darker underbody parts without any scaly 
> appearance....then & only then, you are most probably looking at a House 
> Swift.
> 
> Incidentally, I am yet to see any Fork-tails (or House) this season near 
> Cairns - having moved away from the northern side of Cairns to the 
> southern side has meant that I'm living in a very flat area inland on 
> the coastal plain, well away from the foothills & coastline that these 
> birds usually favour.
> 
> It would be great if you guys get to look more closely at these House 
> Swift-like birds when you next see some, as I would not be surprised 
> that one or two actually were indeed House Swifts!! I have myself at 
> least 5 records of them to the north of Cairns in the last 16 years.
> 
> If Mike or anyone else has other ID features for House Swifts against 
> Fork-tails then I think we all would benefit from them... I think that 
> smaller size for House Swifts is mostly due to shorter tail length, so 
> that tail-moulting Foork-tails appear similar in size (happy to be 
> correcetd on this feature, Mike...)
> 
> Cheers for now,
> 
> Martin Cachard,
> Cairns,
> 
> 
> > Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 05:28:16 +0000
> > From: 
> > To: ; ; 
> 
> > Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Swifts
> > 
> > Hi
> > Interesting I have had an influx of fork-tails over Yorkeys Knob the 
> last couple of days. On Thursday there were about 35+ over my house from 
> early afternoon onwards. Today this has increased to over 150 birds, the 
> fock has been highly mobile and difficult to keep in view. Within the 
> flock there were several clear Fork-tails in wing moult and at least two 
> others that I took to be in tail moult as when they spread their tails 
> they were very square. The variability in white on the throat was quite 
> marked in birds that came low enough to be studied properly, some having 
> very bright clearly defined white chin patches and others far less 
> distinctly marked.
> > Dom
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > ________________________________
> >  From: Alan Gillanders <>
> > To: Mike Tarburton <>; birding-aus 
> <> 
> > Sent: Friday, 11 January 2013, 8:14
> > Subject: [Birding-Aus] Swifts
> >  
> > Mike,
> > At least 17 Fork-tailed Swifts hawking over Petersen Creek Yungaburra 
> yesterday evening. Maximum number something like 25. 
> > 
> > There were also two other swifts there which I did not get good enough 
> looks at to identify. They may have been Fork-tails in tail moult but 
> one had a clear white throat. They may have been House Swifts. My 
> impression was a smaller swift with a flight more like that of the 
> Swiftlets. They were not Swiftlets.
> > Regards,
> > Alan
> > ===============================
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