White-winged Swallow

Taxobox
name = White-winged Swallow

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image_caption = White-winged Swallow at rest in Los LLanos, Venezuela
status = LC
status_system = iucn3.1
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Passeriformes
familia = Hirundinidae
genus = "Tachycineta"
species = "T. albiventer"
binomial = "Tachycineta albiventer"
binomial_authority = (Boddaert, 1783)

The White-winged Swallow, "Tachycineta albiventer", is a resident breeding bird in tropical South America from Colombia, Venezuela and Trinidad south to northern Argentina. Being non-migratory, stray birds are not often encountered; one was seen on July 6, 1996, on the Tuira River downstream of Unión Chocó, Panama, and another one at Schoelcher, Martinique, on August 10, 1993 [AOU (2000)] .

The adult White-winged Swallow is 13.2 cm long and weighs 17 g. It has iridescent blue-green upperparts, white underparts and rump, and white edgings to the secondary flight feathers. The sexes are similar, but juvenile plumage is grey brown above apart from the white rump.

The call is a harsh "chirrup".

White-winged Swallows are easily distinguished from the related Tree Swallow, which has occurred within its range, by the white in the wings; this is lacking in the otherwise quite similar Tree Swallows.

The White-winged Swallow is usually found near water, and feeds primarily on flying insects. It normally occurs in pairs or small flocks.

This swallow builds a cup nest lined with other birds' feathers and some seed down in a tree hole [E.g. of "Macrolobium" sp. (Greeney & Merino M. 2006)] , between boulders or in man-made structures. The clutch is 3-6 white eggs. A nest in Cuyabeno Faunistic Reserve (Ecuador) was found to contain recently-hatched young on August 30, 2003. [Greeney & Merino M. (2006)]

Footnotes

References

* (2000): Forty-second supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. "Auk" 117(3): 847–858. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2000)117 [0847:FSSTTA] 2.0.CO;2
*|year=2004|id=52131|title=Tachycineta albiventer|downloaded=12 May 2006 Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
* (1991): "A guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago" (2nd edition). Comstock Publishing, Ithaca, N.Y.. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2
* (2006): Notes on breeding birds from the Cuyabeno Faunistic Reserve in northeastern Ecuador. "Boletín de la Sociedad Antioqueña de Ornitología" 16(2): 46-57. [http://www.sao.org.co/publicaciones/boletinsao/07-Greeney&Merino.BreedingCuyabenoBirds.pdf PDF fulltext]
* (2003): "Birds of Venezuela". Christopher Helm, London. ISBN 0-7136-6418-5
* (1989): "Swallows and martins: an identification guide and handbook". Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-51174-7