White-rumped Swiftlet (Aerodramus spodiopygius)

Other Names (World)
White-rumped Swiftlet, Australian Swiftlet, Grey Swiftlet(!), Gray Swiftlet(!), Grey-rumped Swiftlet(!), Gray-rumped Swiftlet(!), Little-grey Swiftlet, Little-gray Swiftlet, Northern Grey Swiftlet, Northern Gray Swiftlet, Pacific White-rumped Swiftlet, Moth-bird

Family
Apodidae (Swifts)

Size
10 - 11.50 cm

First Described (Guide)
(Peale, 1848)

Derivation
Coll-o-cal'-i-a -Gk, colla, glue; Gk, calia, nest: spod-io'-pyg-i-us - Gk, spodios, ash-colored; Gk, pyge, rump

Abundance (Guide)
LC

Common within its restricted range. Sedentary.

Habitat
Airspace over rainforest, cleared lands, beaches, gorges, hills.

Range (Guide)

American Samoa, Australia (B), Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu (B).

North-eastern Australia, from Cape York south to about MacKay, Qld.

Rarity Status
View Rarity Status Information

Population
Estimated population is 1,000,000 (2010).

Status LC
Vulnerable.

For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

Food
Aerial insects and drifting spiders.

Voice
Overhead, high-pitched cheeps, in nesting caves, an incessant metallic clicking, used for echo location.

(19Kb) © ? (2)

Xeno-Canto Sound Files (more (6)...)

White-rumped Swiftlet (Aerodramus spodiopygius) [XC383078]
by Todd Mark from A'opo Lava Tube, Gaga'ifomauga, Western Samoa (echolocation clicks)

White-rumped Swiftlet (Aerodramus spodiopygius) [XC184180]
by id from Aketatagapa Cave, Rotokas, Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea (alarm call)

Breeding Season (Guide)
July - October.

Nest
Small halp-cups of vegatable material, including fine moss and tree fragments, with a few feathers, the whole cemented together with saliva, attacheed to a sloping roof of a cave or rocky recess, in colonies.

Eggs (Guide)
1; white; long-oval; about 18 x 13 mm. Incubation: about 22 days; by both sexes.

Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in 40 - 50 days. Fed by both parents.

Subspecies
White-rumped Swiftlet (Aerodramus spodiopygius) and Australian Swiftlet (Aerodramus terraereginae) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) have been lumped into Collocalia spodiopygius following Christidis and Boles (1994). However, Aerodramus spodiopygius was again split into White-rumped Swiftlet (Aerodramus spodiopygius) and Australian Swiftlet (Aerodramus terraereginae) by Christidis and Boles (2008). BirdLife International does not recognize this as a full species.

Forms superspecies with Philippine Swiftlet (Aerodramus mearnsi), Moluccan Swiftlet (Aerodramus infuscatus), Mountain Swiftlet (Aerodramus hirundinaceus) and Australian Swiftlet (Aerodramus terraereginae). Has been considered conspecific with Moluccan Swiftlet (Aerodramus infuscatus), Mountain Swiftlet (Aerodramus hirundinaceus) and Australian Swiftlet (Aerodramus terraereginae).

In view of the above, two subspecies, in Australia, terraereginae, eastern coastal Qld from about Iron Range, Cape York Peninsula to Mackay, chillagoensis, inland Cape York Peninsula, round Chillagoe and Palmerville, and extralimitally, spodiopygius, Samoa, and about ten other subspecies. Some consider subspecies terraereginae, to be a full species Australian Swiftlet (Aerodramus terraereginae).

The following 11 subspecies are recognised:

delichon (Salomonsen, 1983) - Admiralty Is.
eichhorni (Hartert, 1924) - Mussau I in St Matthias Group (north-central Bismarck Archipelago).
noonaedanae (Salomonsen, 1983) - New Ireland and New Britain.
reichenowi (Stresemann, 1912) - Southern and eastern Solomon Is.
desolatus (Salomonsen, 1983) - Duff Is, Swallow Is and Santa Cruz Is.
epiensis (Salomonsen, 1983) - Northern and central Vanuatu.
ingens (Salomonsen, 1983) - Southern Vanuatu.
leucopygius (Wallace, 1864) - Loyalty Is and New Caledonia.
assimilis (Stresemann, 1912) - Fiji.
townsendi (Oberholser, 1906) - Tonga.
spodiopygius (Peale, 1848) - Samoa.

Similar Species
Glossy Swiftlet (Collocalia esculenta) and Uniform Swiftlet (Aerodramus vanikorensis) when observed from below against the sky, but neither have a white rump.

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References
See References.

The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9

Files:

JPG files for White-rumped Swiftlet (Aerodramus spodiopygius) - 10 files

MP3 files for White-rumped Swiftlet (Aerodramus spodiopygius) - 2 files

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