Hello everyone,
I’ve just had a HOUSE SWIFT fly over my house in Surfside NSW. The bird was part of a large Fork-tailed Swift movement (100-200++ birds strong) which is in itself unusual as only White-throated Needle-Tails are present. It was of the same size if a bit smaller than the accompanying Fork-tailed Swifts without any white on the vent. It did, however, have a smallish white throat and rump patch and of course a longish square tail (not triangular like the fanned out tail of a Fork-tailed Swift). Unfortunately I did not manage to get a picture of it and after about a minute of observation it was lost to view.
My guess would be that it was blown south with the cyclone and is now heading north.
It was heading in a northerly direction so keep your eyes peeled.
All the best,
Dimitris
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Hi Dimitris,
Sounds like you are on something cool!
Nikolas
Hi Nikolas,
I didn’t have time to post as I am busy writing down my observation for a proper submission. I saw the bird with its tail spread out and folded in direct comparison to Fork-tails which were and were not moulting tail feathers (again these observed folded and spread) in all cases the Fork-tails had some kind of fork in their tail and had slimmer tails when folded. If the House Swift had tail moult than things would have been harder. There were also differences in wing structure, flight behaviour etc. Again too much detail to go in a quick e-mail.
Cheers,
D.
Hi Dimitris, A House Swift would be an exceptional bird for the area! However, your description doesn’t really rule out a Fork-tailed Swift moulting its rectrices. I’ll keep my eyes peeled tomorrow 😉 Cheers, Nikolas —————- Nikolas Haass nhaass@yahoo.com Sydney, NSW Sent: Friday, February 8, 2013 8:07 PM
Hello everyone,
I’ve just had a HOUSE SWIFT fly over my house in Surfside NSW. The bird was part of a large Fork-tailed Swift movement (100-200++ birds strong) which is in itself unusual as only White-throated Needle-Tails are present. It was of the same size if a bit smaller than the accompanying Fork-tailed Swifts without any white on the vent. It did, however, have a smallish white throat and rump patch and of course a longish square tail (not triangular like the fanned out tail of a Fork-tailed Swift). Unfortunately I did not manage to get a picture of it and after about a minute of observation it was lost to view.
My guess would be that it was blown south with the cyclone and is now heading north.
It was heading in a northerly direction so keep your eyes peeled.
All the best,
Dimitris
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Hi Dimitris,
A House Swift would be an exceptional bird for the area! However, your description doesn’t really rule out a Fork-tailed Swift moulting its rectrices. I’ll keep my eyes peeled tomorrow 😉
Cheers,
Nikolas