I have just published a paper in Neotropical Birding which describes and documents some striking plumage variation among presumed juvenile or immature White-chested Swifts, as observed on our Peru: Northern Andes tour in 2023. We had an amazing event as thousands of swifts were circling at eye-level, with this eBird checklist containing all my photos of these rarely-observed species.

The observations raised some questions about the reliability of various features normally used in the field identification of both White-chinned Swift and Spot-fronted Swift, while also providing the first photo-documented Peruvian record of (presumed) American Black Swift and the third documented Peruvian record of Spot-fronted Swift. The slight possibility that an unknown taxon might explain the plumage oddities of some (presumed) White-chested Swifts and one of the (presumed) American Black Swifts observed is also discussed. Click here for the full text pdf on ResearchGate.

Juvenile / Immature White-chested Swift (Cypseloides lemosi) from our Peru: Northern Andes tour in 2023. Photo by Dani Lopez-Velasco.