Pale-rumped Swift Chaetura egregia Scientific name definitions

Until very recently, the Pale-rumped Swift was thought to be confined to a relatively small area of western Amazonia and the adjacent foothills, but it is now known to range, at least locally, much more widely across southern Amazonia, as far as east Amazonian Brazil. Our better knowledge of its range today is unquestionably rooted in the improved and increased number of field surveys of relevant areas. Usually encountered over tropical evergreen forests, from sea level to at least 1100 m, it has also been recorded over urban areas and more open country, at least occasionally. Like congenerics, it readily associates with other swifts, including those of other genera, such as Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift (Panyptila cayennensis). From similar species, such as the Gray-rumped Swift (Chaetura cinereiventris), the Pale-rumped Swift is best separated by the obviously paler rump, the shorter wings, and to some extent the bronze-colored gloss to the plumage. Our knowledge of its natural history is, like most Neotropical Chaetura swifts, still very rudimentary; nothing is known concerning the species’ breeding or feeding ecology. Although it has traditionally been considered one of the rarer Chaetura swifts, there is no reason to suppose that it is any way threatened.

10·5 cm; 23 g. Smallish swift with short square tail and rectrix spines extending beyond web, protruding head  and distinctive wing shape, with hooked outer wing and bulging midwing, cutting in at body. Black upperparts with bronze gloss (blue in C. cinereiventris), whitish rump and proximal uppertail-coverts; pale throat  on otherwise dark underparts; blackish undertail-coverts.

E Ecuador S through E Peru, W Brazil and NW Bolivia.

Main calls are a single-noted “tsee” (overslurred on sonogram, clearly higher-pitched and longer than “tsip” call of C. cinereiventris) and more complex twittering calls such as “tsee-titi” or “titi-tsee-trtr”.