Cypseloides niger
Silhouette: vectorized by Rob Sparks · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The American black swift, or more simply black swift (Cypseloides niger), is a species of bird that is found from northern British Columbia in Canada through the United States and Mexico to Costa Rica and Brazil. They are also found in the Caribbean.
The American black swift was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other swallows and swifts in the genus Hirundo and coined the binomial name Hirundo nigra. Gmelin based his description on that of French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson who, in 1760, had described and illustrated "Le Martinet de Saint Dominigue" from a preserved specimen. The type locality is Hispaniola: Saint-Domingue was a French colony on the Caribbean island. The American black swift is now placed with seven other swifts in the genus Cypseloides and was introduced in 1848 by the German naturist August Vollrath Streubel. The genus name combines the genus Cypselus introduced by Johann Illiger in 1811 and the Ancient Greek -oidēs meaning "resembling". The specific epithet niger is the Latin word for "black".
Three subspecies... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 2 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 3 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 4 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vancouver Aquarium | 🇨🇦 Canada |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black Swift sighting in Glacier National Park on a given day, based on 188 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 95th most-seen of the 174 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July and August
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black Swift in Glacier National Park on a given day, against under 5% in September to June, the lowest months. Those are among Glacier National Park's driest months, with about 30 mm of rain a month against 80 mm in February.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black 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.
Among the best
Of the 26 parks where we can rate Black Swift sightings, Glacier National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (Jamaica, about 10%) and Jasper National Park (Canada, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black Swift is recorded against all the birds logged in Glacier National Park (188 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.
