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Pygmy Palm Swift | Tachornis furcata
Dwerggierzwaluw | Vencejillo venezolano | Andorinhão-pigmeu
The Pygmy Palm Swift is a very small, slender palm swift of the Maracaibo basin in north-western Venezuela, known in the guide area only as a rare bird in north-eastern Colombia. At about 10 cm and 6 to 7 g it is among the smallest swifts. It resembles Fork-tailed Palm Swift, but is smaller and has a shorter tail.
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Voice
High, thin, buzzy chirps and short trills in flight.
Recording: Iván Lau — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
10 cm, with narrow wings and a deeply forked tail that is usually held closed in a point. The upperparts are blackish brown. The throat and centre of the belly are greyish white, the flanks and undertail coverts dark. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Fork-tailed Palm Swift Tachornis squamata is larger and slimmer, with a much longer tail and finely scaled upperparts; it lives east of the Andes. Short-tailed Swift Chaetura brachyura and other swifts of the genus Chaetura are stockier, with a short, square tail.
Habitat
Open, warm lowlands with palms, forest edges, pastures and villages, below about 500 m. It hunts small insects low in the air, often in small groups. As far as known it nests mainly in palms.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia rare in the lowlands of the Catatumbo region in the north-east, at the edge of the main range in Venezuela. Absent from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area only in the Maracaibo basin of north-western Venezuela.
How and when to look
There is a chance only in the warm lowlands of Norte de Santander, near the Venezuelan border; watch there for very small swifts with a pointed tail over palms and pastures.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The range is small, but the species tolerates open, man-made landscapes.
Scientific name
Tachornis furcata | (Sutton, 1928)
Sutton described the species in 1928 as Micropanyptila furcata; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Tachornis was introduced in 1847 by Gosse. The genus name comes from Greek takhus, 'fast', and ornis, 'bird'. The species name comes from Latin furcatus, 'forked', after the forked tail. The specimen the first description was based on came from Guachi, Zulia, Venezuela.