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Swift and palid Swift? Alentejo region in Portugal (1 Viewer)

Bert

Bert

Birdwatchingalentejo.com
Hi all,

I made these photos today. In my opinion the first photo is of a Palid Swift, the second of 2 Swifts. But light was tricky........

Can you please confirm?

Thank,

Bert
 

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Hi Bert,
You may be correct here, but I would be expecting to see a blunter point on the wings to make it pallid. However, there appears to be white edges to the scaling effect, so one for and one sort of against. Therefore, I will go with pallid in one and common in the second. Both great shots, but I would have liked to see upperbody shots to make confirmation of pallid a tad easier.
Cheers,
Jono
 
I'm inclined to agree with Tom - for the 1st photo (nice!), even considering lighting and that the underwing is in shadow, the dark blackish-brown tones don't seem good for Pallid to me - though they can look cold toned in morning light. The white forehead and around eye could be the strong lighting - the bird doesn't seem or wide winged or hippy enough to me for Pallid. The 2nd photo (nice too!) seem to be clear CS.
 
While I agree with Tom and Simon on the first photograph (= Common Swift), the second photo gives the impression of two Pallid Swifts to me: these birds look browner, with the scaling on the belly being more prominent than that on the undertail coverts (the latter looking relatively plain).
 
Interesting as Pallid is meant to have the larger throat patch and obvious eye-mask, which the first photo has and the second doesn't. I guess it depends which features you attach most importance to. Both photos show scaling so all very interesting but hard for me to draw any firm conclusions from.

Roy
 
Same feeling as Roy here regarding the birds in pic 2. The throat patch is narrow and seemingly does not extend very far onto the lower throat. I would not rely too heavily on colour shade since the light is clearly coming from above the birds. And the undertail scaling on the left bird look consistent with CS to me, while the position of the right bird makes the assessment of this peculiar feature difficult. Another somewhat subjective is the broadness of the head: again better for CS to my eyes.

Always tough on photo though (and not necessarily easier in the field!!).
 
I struggle to be certain when watching these two species unless I see the upperside of the wing, but if I had to call it on these shots I'd go for Common in both - largely on wingtip shape.
 
Thank you all for your opinions and complements! But it does not seem to be conclusive.........
 
I'd have to agree with the majority in that the first photograph looks good for C.Swift. The second one I'd be relatively happy to put down as Pallid, BUT I'd still like a better photo collection i.e. upperside shots. One thing for sure, I find it easier to tell them apart in the firld than looking at these photos!

Peter
 
I checked the Advanced ID Guide and the tail structure is wrong for either of the photos to be Pallid, which is interesting. T5 is meant to be te same length as T4 in Pallid and clearly they aren't in the 2nd photo and the tail in photo 1 isn't looking too good either.

Cheers

Roy
 
as for the 2nd pic i'm quite sure they are common swifts, too. small schin patch, small head, narrow hips, spointed wings and what roy says about rectrices (usually written as r4 = r5, not "T4/T5").
it's just that they look so warm brown because of lighting and background.
 
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