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| Mottled Swift in flight - Unspecified |
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| Photographer | » | Bruno PORTIER |
| Location | » | Sahel Partial Reserve |
| Country image taken | » |
Burkina Faso |
| Date | » | June, 2002 |
| Equipment | » | Nikon F100 + Sigma 400mm f5.6 + Fuji Sensia 100 ISO |
| Bird Species | » | Tachymarptis aequatorialis - Mottled Swift |
| Bird Species (French) | » | Martinet marbré |
| Bird Family | » | Apodidae - Swift, Spinetail |
| Bird Group | » | Apodiformes Spinetail, Swift |
| Bird Status | » | Least Concern |
| Remarks | » | "This individual is part of a flock of 96 birds.
This constitutes the first record for the species in Burkina Faso." After some discussion on the identity of this bird with Bruno, Nik Borrow and Pete Leonard, it has been agreed that it is in fact Mottled Swift.
Birds of Africa Volume III pages 235-237 gives the following information for Mottled Swift. There are 4 subspecies with the
following ranges and underpart features noted:
T.a.gelidus Zimbabwe west; chin and upper throat grey-white; breast, belly and undertail coverts greyish brown scalloped whitish;
T.a.aequatorialis Ethiopia to Angola and Zimbabwe east, Cameroon; weekly differentiated from gelidus with greyer and smaller throat patch;
T.a.furensis Sudan (Darfur); throat patch white extending into centre of lower throat and even upper breast where barred and streaked with brown; belly feathers white with 2-2.5 brown subterminal band;
T.a.lowei Sierra Leone to Nigeria; throat patch pure white; belly mottled blackish and white; each feather white with 2-3 dark bands.
Field Characters: A very large swift, brown or blackish with deeply forked tail, pale throat, whitish belly with dark crescents (Sudan) or
dark underparts with copious narrow white crescents. In Sudan (Darfur), barred flanks distinguish it from Alpine Swift T.melba;
elsewhere its black (not pure white) belly readily distinguishes it from that species.
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| The picture is perhaps unclear but these 96 birds seen on June 8th 2002 in northern Burkina were not Alpine Swifts to me. Alpine swifts would have show an more demarcated breast band and an obvious white belly. Birds were extremely well seen showing scally belly and flanks (clearly visible on picture). I am quite suprised that identification of a bird might be changed on the AfBID without even noticing the photographer. |
| posted by Bruno PORTIER, Apr 30th 2011 at 5:50pm |
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