Chimney Swift

Chaetura pelagicaOrder: APODIFORMES Family: Swifts (Apodidae)

Codes: Common Name: CHSW Scientific Name: CHAPEL ITIS Taxonomic No.: 178001

Illustration © Copyright 2002-2007 Whatbird.com
Click here for licensing information

Percevia^® Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The Percevia field guides, database and search protocol patent pending.

The best bird guide and bird watching search engine to identify birds!

Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Chimney Swift

Chimney Swift: Medium-sized swift, uniformly dark brown with slightly paler throat and upper breast. Inconspicuous spines extend past web at tips of tail feathers. Bill, legs and feet are black. Flight is rapid and batlike on swept-back wings, alternates with gliding. Soars on thermals and updrafts.

● Song: "chatter-chatter-chatter"

● Foraging & Feeding: Chimney Swift: Feeds on insects; forages in flight, sometimes quite high. Drinks by skimming the water surface in flight.

● Breeding & nesting: Chimney Swift: Two to seven white eggs are laid in a nest made of twigs cemented together with saliva and fastened to inner wall of a chimney or, rarely, in a cave or hollow tree. Incubation ranges from 19 to 21 days and is carried out by both parents.

● Similar species: Chimney Swift: Vaux's Swift is somewhat smaller, with shorter wings, paler rump and throat, and different call.

Flight Pattern

Rapid batlike flight.

● Range & Habitat: Chimney Swift: Breeds from southeastern Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, central Ontario, southern Quebec, and Nova Scotia south to Gulf coast states. Spends winters in the tropics. Nests and roosts in chimneys and feeds entirely on the wing over forests, open country, and towns.

^BreedingMonogamous, Colonial or solitary nester

^PopulationFairly common to common

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.8 Ounces

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America

Chimney Swift

Chimney Swift

Flight Pattern