Hi Mike,
Thanx for your reply - am glad that you pretty much agree with what I'd put
forward to the list regarding salient ID features of House Swift v's
Fork-tailed Swift...
I have just got home now from 2 days up at my Black-winged Monarch study site,
north of Cooktown - I saw a loose group of about 20 White-throated Needletails
whizzing low over me above the road there yesterday morning, but not a single
FTS!! Weather conditiions when I saw the needletails were humid, clear but with
some storm activity closeby, & with a shower there an hour earlier...
Other birds at the site, apart from about 15 Black-winged Monarchs (all adults
or at end of first year), included: Black Bittern, myriad Oriental Cuckoos
(prob 25 or so within 3kms), nesting Noisy Pittas, nesting Azure &
Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfishers, nesting Papuan Frogmouths, nesting Shining
Flycatchers, Chestnut-breasetd Cuckoos, all 3 fruit-doves, Northern Fantails,
White-browed Robins, & some very camera-shy Tropoical Scrubwrens etc etc ....
plus so many more... not a bad spot to visit at least 10 times per year!!
I'm still yet to see any FTS here in north Qld this season!!
Cheers for now,
Martin Cachard
Cairns
> From:
> To:
> CC: ; ;
> ;
> Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2013 15:25:47 +1100
> Subject: Re: RE: [Birding-Aus] Swifts
>
> 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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