Habitat
Urban areas, forages and breeds over a variety of natural habitats including river-edge forest, the edge of tropical lowland evergreen forest and second-growth scrub, coastal areas, irrigated farmland. From sea-level - 3,000 m.
Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Brazil (NB), Canada (P), Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, St Pierre and Miquelon (P), Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, USA (B), Venezuela.
Vagrant to Barbados, Greenland, Jamaica, Portugal, United Kingdom, Virgin Islands (U.S.).
Eastern North America, and occasionally California and Arizona. Winters in eastern Ecuador, western and eastern Peru, north-western Brazil and northern Chile, though precise range unclear.
Population
Estimated population is 15,000,000 (2010) and decreasing.
Status VU
The decreasing number of nesting and roosting sites caused by logging operations, the demolition of old abandoned buildings and, especially, the sharp decline in the number of suitable and accessible traditional chimneys, which are this species's main breeding habitat, is the main threat.
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.
Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) [XC636190]
by from Toronto, Toronto Division, Ontario, Canada (call, song)
Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) [XC457517]
by Thomas Ryder Payne from Green Lane Park, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States (flight call)
Subspecies
Previously considered conspecific with Vaux's Swift (Chaetura vauxi) and Chapman's Swift (Chaetura chapmani). Recent study suggests that this species may be related to subspecies meridionalis of Southern Swift (Chaetura meridionalis).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet