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American black swift
	An adult on its nest in Shoshone County, Idaho
Conservation status
	; Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Clade:	Strisores
Order:	Apodiformes
Family:	Apodidae
Genus:	Cypseloides
Species:	C. niger
Binomial name
	Cypseloides niger; (Gmelin, JF, 1789)
	Range breeding visitor passage and vagrancy present year-round (movements in South America are poorly known)

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.

Taxonomy

The American black swift was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other swallows and swifts in the genus Hirundo and coined the binomial name Hirundo nigra.^[2] Gmelin based his description on that of French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson who, in 1760, had described and illustrated "Le Martinet de Saint Dominigue" from a preserved specimen.^[3] The type locality is Hispaniola: Saint-Domingue was a French colony on the Caribbean island.^[4] The American black swift is now placed with seven other swifts in the genus Cypseloides and was introduced in 1848 by the German naturist August Vollrath Streubel.^[5]^[6] The genus name combines the genus Cypselus introduced by Johann Illiger in 1811 and the Ancient Greek -oidēs meaning "resembling". The specific epithet niger is the Latin word for "black".^[7]

Three subspecies are recognised:^[6]

C. n. borealis (Kennerly, 1858) – southeast Alaska to southwest USA
C. n. costaricensis Ridgway, 1910 – central Mexico to Costa Rica
C. n. niger (Gmelin, JF, 1789) – West Indies and Trinidad

Description

In flight, these birds resemble flying cigars with long slender curved wings. The plumage is mostly a sooty, dark gray. There is some contrast between the inner and outer portions of the wing. The shoulders are distinctly darker in color than other parts of the wing. They have short tails that are slightly forked.

Distribution and habitat

Fewer than 150 black swift breeding sites are known in the United States, with 108 (as of July 2012) known from Colorado.^[8] These include:

In Alberta: next to a waterfall in Johnston Canyon, Banff National Park (declining, given extra protection as of August 2018); Maligne Canyon, Jasper National Park^[8]^[9]
In California: the Santa Cruz coast (where it is declining); Berry Creek Falls; Burney Falls State Park; Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks; the San Bernardino Mountains; and the San Jacinto Mountains^[8]
In Colorado: Box Canyon near Ouray,^[10] Hanging Lake,^[11] Hawk Creek Falls, Falls Creek Falls, and Niagara and Cataract Gulches^[8]
In New Mexico: Jemez Falls^[8]
In Utah: Stewart Falls^[8]
In Washington: Semiahmoo Bay^[8]

These birds migrate out of North America after the breeding season. It remains unclear where most of the birds spend the winter, although some of the birds have been tracked as far south as Brazil. A study published in 2012 tagged four birds breeding in Colorado with a light-level geolocator and found that the birds wintered in the lowland rainforest of western Brazil.^[12] Some of the birds in the West Indies appear to be permanent residents. They are late spring migrants into the breeding range, with Colorado breeders not arriving until the very end of May into June. Large flocks of migrants are occasionally seen in spring and fall, but only very rarely far south of the U.S. breeding range.^[13]

Behavior and ecology

Food and feeding

American black swifts live on the wing, foraging in flight. They eat flying insects, primarily flying ants and beetles, often foraging in small groups.

Breeding

Their breeding habitat is frequently associated with water. The birds most often nest on high cliff faces, either above the ocean surf or behind or next to waterfalls. The nest is made of twigs and moss glued together with mud. They will also use ferns and seaweed if available. The clutch size is one egg, with incubation lasting 23–27 days. Newly hatched young are probably fed multiple times a day, but older nestlings usually only once a day by each parent, most often at dusk. Adults spend the night roosting at or near the nest site.

References

^ BirdLife International. (2021). "Cypseloides niger". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2021: e.T22686440A178440176. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-3.RLTS.T22686440A178440176.en.
^ Gmelin, Johann Friedrich (1789). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 1 (13th ed.). Lipsiae [Leipzig]: Georg. Emanuel. Beer. p. 1025.
^ Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés (in French and Latin). Vol. 2. Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. pp. 514–515, Plate 46 fig. 3. The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen.
^ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1940). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 4. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 243.
^ Streubel, August Vollrath (1848). "Die Cypseliden des Berliner Museums". Isis von Oken (in German). Cols 348–373 [366].
^ ^a ^b Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2022). "Owlet-nightjars, treeswifts & swifts". IOC World Bird List Version 12.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 129, 270. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Levad, Rich (2007). "The Coolest Bird" (PDF). The American Birding Association.
^ Staff writers (2018-08-17). "Unofficial trail in 'secret cave' area of Johnston Canyon closed by Parks Canada to protect unique birds". CBC News. Retrieved 2018-08-19.
^ "Ouray, Colorado: Birding". Ouray Chamber Resort Association.
^ "Audubon IBAs: Hanging Lake". Archived from the original on 14 March 2012.
^ Beason, J.P.; Gunn, C.; Potter, K.M.; Sparks, R.A.; Fox, J.W. (2012). "The northern black swift: migration path and wintering area revealed". The Wilson Journal of Ornithology. 124 (1): 1–8. doi:10.1676/11-146.1.
^ Gunn, C.; Lowther, P.E.; Collins, C.T.; Beason, J.; Potter, K.; Webb, M. (2020). Billerman, S.M.; Keeney, B.K. (eds.). "Black Swift (Cypseloides niger), version 2.0". Birds of the World. Ithaca, NY, USA: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. doi:10.2173/bow.blkswi.02. Retrieved 9 July 2022.