Pygmy Palm Swift Tachornis furcata Scientific name definitions

The Pygmy Swift is a tiny brown-and-white swift with a deeply forked tail. There are two subspecies described within the Pygmy Swift's limited range in northern Venezuela; T. f. furcata and T. f. nigrodorsalis. Mainly found in tropical, lowland, evergreen forest and second-growth scrub, the Pygmy Swift spends most of the day on the wing in search of flying insects. Like the closely related Antillean Palm-swift, the Pygmy Swift is often found using royal palms for nesting and roosting. Despite its restricted range, the Pygmy Swift's population is believed to be stable, and consequently has not been placed on any threatened species lists; however, better study of the population's structure and stability is needed.

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Calls around colony a buzzy “bee-beez-beez-beez-be-be-be”, accelerating and trailing off (1 Hilty, S. L. (2003). Birds of Venezuela. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ).

Pair collected at nest-site in late Jul, Catatumbo lowlands, Colombia (2 Bond, J. (1956). Nesting of the Pygmy Palm Swift. Auk. 73(3): 457. Close ). In Venezuela, nests with young recorded in Feb (1 Hilty, S. L. (2003). Birds of Venezuela. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ) and Jul, and also a number of active nests in Jan (3 Collins, C.T., Kelsey, R. and Ryan, T.P. (2010). Notes on the biology of Pygmy Palm Swift Micropanyptila furcata. Cotinga. 32: 46–50. Close ). Nests are bag-like structures, made of feathers glued together with salivary cement and attached near the central rib on the underside of hanging frond of a palm tree (including Roystonea sp., Copernicia sp. and Cocus nucifera), the entrance to the nest chamber being from below, along the central rib of the palm frond (3 Collins, C.T., Kelsey, R. and Ryan, T.P. (2010). Notes on the biology of Pygmy Palm Swift Micropanyptila furcata. Cotinga. 32: 46–50. Close ).

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Restricted-range species: present in Caribbean Colombia and Venezuela EBA. Regularly encountered in Jan 1995 throughout the SE Maracaibo Basin in Venezuela, in a variety of habitats including cleared pastures, cropland, open forest and rural towns; as it was recorded at nearly all previously known sites and many additional ones, often in close proximity to human activities and potential sources of disturbance, it appears  that it is not a rare bird and currently does not require special status or conservation efforts (4 Collins, C.T., Ryan, T.P. and Kelsey, R. (2002). A review of the distribution and status of Pygmy Palm-Swift Micropanyptila furcata in Venezuela. Bird Conservation International. 12(2): 189–196. Close ).