Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Côte dIvoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Portugal (B), Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Spain (B) (NB), Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Vagrant to Finland, Gambia, Gibraltar, Malta, Mauritania, Norway, Tunisia, Yemen.
Southern Spain, eastern Portugal and central Morocco; Senegambia, northern and eastern Sierra Leone and (probably breeding) north-western Liberia, then central Ivory Coast east to Somalia and south to South Africa; southern Gabon south to central Namibia (Windhoek). Winter range of migratory populations unknown.
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
White-rumped Swift (Apus caffer) [XC330402]
by Jos\u00e9 Carlos Sires from zona de playa, algeciras, c\u00e1diz, andaluc\u00eda, Spain (begging call, call)
White-rumped Swift (Apus caffer) [XC330263]
by Jos\u00e9 Carlos Sires from sierra carbonera, algeciras, c\u00e1diz, andaluc\u00eda, Spain (begging call)
Subspecies
Population of northern Angola and lower Congo formerly separated racially as ansorgei, but merely one of darkest-headed populations and no longer considered a valid subspecies. Birds of tropical zones (excluding migratory populations in extreme northern and south) claimed to average shorter-winged, and are sometimes recognized as racially distinct (streubelii), but variation in wing length apparently clinal, increasing from north to south-west.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet