Black Swift
Description
The American black swift, or more simply black swift (Cypseloides niger), is a species of bird that is found from northern British Columbia in Canada through the United States and Mexico to Costa Rica and Brazil. They are also found in the Caribbean.
Distribution & Habitat
The Black Swift occurs in Western North America, Central
America, Guyana, Columbia,
and throughout the West Indies
(Raffaele and others 1998). It
is a summer resident migrant
species in Puerto Rico and is
very rare in winter (Kepler 1971,
Raffaele 1989a). The Black Swift
is more common in mountainous
areas (e.g., El Yunque National
Forest and Maricao) than in
the lowlands and coastal areas
(Raffaele and others 1998), but it
has been seen over the coast in
the Guánica dry forest (Kepler
1971). The atlas fieldwork
yielded a total of 26 records
within 20 hexagons or 4 percent of the 479 total hexagons (see
map). Of the 20 hexagons where
this species was found, breeding
met the atlas definition of
confirmed in 5 percent (1) of the
hexagons, probable in 10 percent
(2), and possible in 55 percent
(11), while the species was
observed in 30 percent (6) of the
hexagons but without evidence
of breeding (see map).
Breeding Habits
The Black Swift nesting sites are associated with crevices in cliffs,
often near or under a waterfall.
Previously published reports
indicate that breeding takes
place from March to September
(Raffaele and others 1998). Atlas Black Swift distribution. The map shows the highest breeding code by hexagon and overlaying the ecological life zones in
Puerto Rico. Note: percentages may not total 100 due to rounding. 79Black Swift/Vencejo Negroresults indicate that the breeding season for this species extends
mostly during the first period
of the year (MarchJuly) and
peaks in June (see chart). In
general, this species breeds in
the subtropical wet forest, but
during the peak of the breeding
season it uses other life zones, a
pattern observed in many other
species. Results show that this
species breeds mostly within the
subtropical wet and subtropical
moist forest life zones (50 and 36 percent of the hexagons,
respectively). Breeding for
this species was also reported for one hexagon (7 percent
of the hexagons) in both the
subtropical dry forest life zone
and subtropical rain forest life
zone (see table and map).
Conservation
Although the Black Swift population is slowly decreasing
due to habitat degradation, among other causes, it is listed
as a species of least concern by
the IUCN (BirdLife International
2018). Locally, this species is
listed as vulnerable (PRDNER
2016). In Puerto Rico, the Black
Swift has a protected habitat in
land of 40 percent or 134 km2 of the total area covered by
the hexagons where evidence
of breeding was found for this
species (335 km2).
Related Species
Family:
swift