African Palm Swift - BirdForum Opus

Photo by xentox
Liberia, September 2005

Cypsiurus parvus

Identification

Length 15-16 cm, mass 10-18 g. Pale brown. Slender, with long swept-back wings, a long and deeply forked tail, and very short legs which they use only for clinging to vertical surfaces.

Distribution

Sub-Saharan Africa and south-western Arabia
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegambia, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Angola

Subspecies myochrous
Photo by Valéry Schollaert
Lukuba Island Lodge, Lake Victoria, Tanzania September 2010

Eastern Africa: Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, eSwatini
African Islands: Gulf of Guinea Islands, Bioko (Fernando Po), Sao Tome, Principe
Middle East: Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Yemen

Taxonomy

Subspecies^[1]

There are eight subspecies:

• C. p. parvus

• Senegambia to southern Sudan, Ethiopia and south-western Arabia

• C. p. brachypterus

• Sierra Leone to north-eastern DRC, Angola and the Gulf of Guinea islands

• C. p. myochrous

• Higher elevations from southern Sudan to north-eastern South Africa

• C. p. laemostigma

• Coastal lowlands of southern Somalia to Mozambique

• C. p. hyphaenes

• Northern Namibia and northern Botswana

• C. p. celer

• Mozambique to KwaZulu-Natal

Habitat

Open country, strongly associated with oil palms and other palm trees.

Behaviour

They spend most of their lives in the air.

Breeding

They build a nest of down and feather which is attached by saliva to the underside of a palm leaf. The clutch consists of 2 eggs.

Diet

The diet includes insects which are aerially hawked.

References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Avibase

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) African Palm Swift. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 24 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/African_Palm_Swift

External Links

Search for photos of African Palm Swift in the gallery