Tachornis phoenicobia
Silhouette: Aviceda (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The Antillean palm swift (Tachornis phoenicobia) is a species of bird in subfamily Apodinae of the swift family Apodidae. It is found on the Caribbean islands of Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola (shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti).
The Antillean palm swift is 9 to 11 cm (3.5 to 4.3 in) long and weighs about 9 to 11 g (0.32 to 0.39 oz). It has long narrow wings and a medium length forked tail. The sexes are alike. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a dark sooty brown crown and nape. Their back, a narrow center strip of the rump, uppertail coverts, and tail are sooty black to black. The sides of their rump are white. Their wings are sooty blackish with pale edges on the flight feathers. Most of their face is grayish brown. Their underparts are mostly dull white; their flanks, a narrow band across the breast, and undertail coverts are dark sooty brown. Immatures are similar to adults, but their underparts are an even duller white, and the flanks and undertail coverts a paler sooty brown.
The subspecies T.... Wikipedia →
Flight call0:40
Dominican Republic · 2009
© Jesse Fagan · XC34890 · CC BY-NC-ND 2.5
Recording0:10
Dominican Republic · 2026
© kaysenawesome · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:12
Dominican Republic · 2023
© Christopher Rustay · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Haitises National Park | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 2 | Ciénaga de Zapata | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 3 | Jaragua National Park | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 4 | Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park | 🇯🇲 Jamaica |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 2 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Antillean Palm Swift sighting in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 34 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 73rd most-seen of the 91 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April–May, September and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Antillean Palm Swift in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July–August, October and December–March, the lowest months. June has too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Antillean Palm Swift sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Antillean Palm Swift sightings, Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park ranks 4th at under 5%. The best odds are in Los Haitises National Park (Dominican Republic, about 40%), Ciénaga de Zapata (Cuba, about 30%) and Jaragua National Park (Dominican Republic, about 20%).
Same family: Apodidae
The closest relatives of the Antillean Palm Swift that you can see in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (family Apodidae, Swifts) are White-collared Swift (about 10%) and Black Swift (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Antillean Palm Swift is recorded against all the birds logged in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (34 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
