1 - Very small, like a sparrow
2 - Color seemed dark overall, I saw it in silhouette against a bright sky, but I had
8x42 binocs, bird was less than 50 yards away, observed for about 30 sec from
all angles and if it had white parts I would have seen them.
3 - Location: Tampa FL
4 - Both flapped wings rapidly and soared
5 - Swept-back, pointed wings began just behind the head
6 - Sketch is pretty accurate.
I’ve checked a lot of bird sites, including WhatBird, without success.
I’m guessing a swallow of some sort?
My first thought was a swallow. Both the silhouette and the description of its flight indicate “swallow” to me.
The ones with which I am familiar (SE Michigan, NE Ohio) have a pale gray underside, but it you never actually saw the belly in good light, it might not be visible.
(And there may be other varieties of swallow that I have not seen.)
On this page describing the cliff swallow the pale (gray or buff) underside is prominent. However, if you look at the second to last photo, you can see that at some stage, the pale unerside has a lot of dark in it.
And this barn swallow and this barn swallow each has a reddish orange tint that might have not displayed as “pale” in low light.
Here’s some info on barn swallows.
Possibly a chimney swift ,although I usually see them in groups.
From the description and sketch, I would say it’s most likely a Chimney Swift, aptly called “a cigar with wings.” No swallow would look so dark at close range except a male Purple Martin, and martins have slightly forked tails. Swifts have very “swept back” wings - the “upper arm” part of the wing is very short, so it looks like the wings don’t have any joints except at the shoulder. Usually Chimney Swifts look almost tailless, but they sometimes do spread the tail and then resemble the silhouette.
Chimney Swifts are in migration at this time of year and could well be seen singly.
Thanks to everyone for the replies. As soon as I saw the picture in elelle’s link, I knew it was a chimney swift. All of the swallow species have too much white on them, and their wings are too wide. Case closed!
Case closed, and glad for your ID, but I really love Chimney Swifts, so would like to add: they come back here on migration, and often take residence in (who’d a thunk it; chimneys). When I worked as a wildlife rehabilitator, there were many calls for chimney swift babies who had become a nuisance because of their Loud chattering calls. The birds make their nests on chimneys, and can be noisy, but I think they greatly outweigh the chatter factor by eating pesky bugs.
Like to hear your take on it, Colibri, as to the safety of the birds lodging in chimneys, but, the flight of Swifts hasn’t come back here just yet, in NC, and I so look forward to them for evening entertainmemt. I love their chatter and flight skill!
I assume that by the time the swifts are nesting in chimneys that the weather is warm enough that few people are building fires in them.
We do raptor watches here in Panama during October and November. I hadn’t realized how common Chimney Swifts are as migrants here until one day when I saw lots going by one of our watch sites. They were not migrating in flocks, but every few minutes another one would go by like a bullet with wings.
I’ve checked around some, and I have not yet disproved the factoid that the chimney swift can fly by flapping its wings alternately (that is, right, left, right, left, etc.) Part B of the factoid is that no other bird can do that.
Wow! That’s one nasty bird.
Colibri
I didn’t mean the concern of fires in chimneys interfering with the swifts: they get here, as you say, well past fire-building times. But, people would get upset at swifts nesting n chimneys, and babies were brought in after falling down into the fireplace.
They are very hard to raise without their parents, as birds go; very difficult to feed properly, being on the nocturnal end of the spectrum. So, the advice was to reintroduce them to the nest, beyond the scope of what most people are willing to do. Basically, I see them as harmless, beneficial bug eating residents of chimneys in the off-season, but people get rather worked up about them without understanding them.
So, am asking the question of safety of letting them nest in chimneys to assure people it’s fine, they’ll be gone by the time you’d build a fire, so no problem. But, maybe it’s not best for them to be there, and advise to cap chimneys? Do you see harm in them nesting there?
Odd that they migrate singly; when I see them here, they are in small groups always.
Hmm, have gone on, but they are such amazing birds, and in my experience working with them, very much on the “cipher” end of the bird world.
No, I don’t think it’s really a problem for the birds, even if an occasional chick falls out of the nest. (After all, lots of baby robins fall out the trees too.) In fact, according to this site Chimney Swifts are declining today because there are now many fewer chimneys than there used to be, and many modern ones are not suitable. (The swifts originally nested in hollow trees, and adopted chimneys as the forests were cut down.) Chimneys being capped are part of the swifts’ problems.
A Chimney Swift’s nest is pretty small and flimsy and should not cause blockage problems in a chimney, especially since only one pair tends to nest in each chimney. People should be encouraged to host the swifts, especially since they eat a lot of insects including mosquitoes.
Thanks much for the answer, Colibri. Hope some folks here see that and are happy to see swifts nest in their chimneys, hearing their chatter call as a good thing,
