Vaux's swift
Chaetura vauxi
Identification Tips:
- Sexes similar
- Juvenile similar to adult
- Small aerial bird with cigar-shaped body and crescent-shaped
wings
- Short tail bluntly squared off
- Plumage sooty gray above with paler rump
- Whitish throat darkening to sooty gray on belly
- Underwings pale gray
Similar species:
All swallows have longer tails, usually with a notch or fork,
and broader wings. Black and White-throated Swifts have forked
tails and different patterning below. Chimney Swift is extremely
similar but is larger, with longer wings, a darker rump and throat,
and a different call.