Chaetura spinicaudus
Silhouette: Aviceda (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The band-rumped swift (Chaetura spinicaudus) is a species of bird in subfamily Apodinae of the swift family Apodidae. It is found from Panama south through Colombia into Ecuador, east from Venezuela into the Guianas and Brazil, and on Trinidad.
The band-rumped swift, pale-rumped swift (C. egregia), grey-rumped swift (C. cinereiventris), and Lesser Antillean swift (C. martinica) were at one time placed in genus Acanthylis. During much of the 20th century the Costa Rican swift (C. fumosa) was treated as a subspecies of the band-rumped. Other subspecies have been proposed but not accepted.
The band-rumped swift is 10.5 to 12.6 cm (4.1 to 5.0 in) long and weighs 13.8 to 18.5 g (0.49 to 0.65 oz). It has a protruding head, a short square tail, and wings that bulge in the middle and somewhat hook at the end. The sexes are alike. Adults of the nominate subspecies have black-brown upperparts with a white band on the rump. Their underparts are dark with a slightly paler throat. Juveniles have white tips on some wing feathers... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brownsberg Nature Park | 🇸🇷 Suriname | |
| 2 | Soberanía National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 3 | Utría National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 4 | Darién National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 5 | San Lorenzo Protected Forest | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 6 | Anavilhanas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Chagres National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 8 | Tayrona National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 9 | Caroni Swamp | 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago | |
| 10 | Parque Natural Metropolitano | 🇵🇦 Panama |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Band-rumped Swift sighting in Chagres National Park on a given day, based on 30 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 235th most-seen of the 372 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 and October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Band-rumped Swift in Chagres National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May–September and November–March, the lowest months.
Between 2 and 5 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Band-rumped 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.
7th of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Band-rumped Swift sightings, Chagres National Park ranks 7th at under 5%. The best odds are in Brownsberg Nature Park (Suriname, about 40%), Soberanía National Park (Panama, about 20%) and Utría National Natural Park (Colombia, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Band-rumped Swift is recorded against all the birds logged in Chagres National Park (30 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.
