Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) [XC230008]
by Peter Boesman from Volc\u00e1n del Fuego, Jalisco, Mexico (call)
Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx) [XC781091]
by Paul Driver from Upper Hanover (near Pennsburg), Montgomery, Pennsylvania, United States (call)
Subspecies
Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) and Yucatan Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx ridgwayi) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) have been lumped into Stelgidopteryx serripennis following AOU (1998).
Formerly considered conspecific with Southern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx ruficollis), and subspecies decolor of Southern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx ruficollis) has been regarded as intermediate between the two species, but they are separated altitudinally where ranges overlap in Costa Rica. Sometimes treated as monotypic; subspecies intergrade and borders between them (and degree of overlap) uncertain, also N-southern cline in coloration, and tendency for paler forms in south-western USA and north-western Mexico, also size increases north to southern and wing longer towards north-west; fulvipennis possibly not separable. Conversely, ridgwayi and stuarti sometimes regarded as constituting a separate species.
Proposed subspecies aphracta (western Great Basin region of USA), supposedly dark above and with greyer throat, considered undiagnosable.
The following 7 subspecies are recognised:
serripennis (Audubon, 1838) - South-eastern Alaska, and from southern Canada (central British Columbia, central Alberta, central Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, western and southern Ontario east to south-western New Brunswick and south-western Nova Scotia) southern in USA to central California, northern Nevada, New Mexico, central Texas and south-western Florida. Winters mostly south-western Mexico and Florida south to central Panama.
psammochroa Griscom, 1929 - Southern California, southern Nevada, south-western Utah, south-western Arizona, southern New Mexico and southern Texas south to southern and north-eastern Mexico (south through northern coastal plains and possibly interior highlands to south-western Oaxaca and Tamaulipas), possibly also southern along coast to El Salvador. Winters central Mexico south to Panama.
fulvipennis (Sclater, PL, 1860) - Central and southern Mexico (lowlands and middle elevations from central Veracruz, eastern Oaxaca and eastern Chiapas) south to Costa Rica.
stuarti Brodkorb, 1942 - Southern Mexican lowlands (southern from southern Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas) south to eastern Guatemala.
ridgwayi Nelson, 1901 - Northern Yucatán Peninsula (south to northern Campeche and central Quintana Roo). Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Yucatan Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx ridgwayi).