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.