Swiftlet? ID please

I have met a lot of swiftlets near RDC in Sepilok early last October. As they flew high up in the sky, my photos are very
poor. I can not identify them at all. Please tell me what they are.

no image??

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I am a Japanese retired ex-engineer. Two-weeks' birding trip to Sepilok, Kinabalu, and Kuala Selangor was so fruitfull
that I have photographed 64 first-looking species for me. But only one species can not be identified. These swiftlets
were seen very near DRC at Sepilok early last October. Due to severe condition, I could not take high-quality photos
at all. If you can guess what these are, please tell me. Thank you in advance.[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Hideo Sunami wrote:I am a Japanese retired ex-engineer. Two-weeks' birding trip to Sepilok, Kinabalu, and Kuala Selangor was so fruitfull
that I have photographed 64 first-looking species for me. But only one species can not be identified. These swiftlets
were seen very near DRC at Sepilok early last October. Due to severe condition, I could not take high-quality photos
at all. If you can guess what these are, please tell me. Thank you in advance.[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Dear Hideo Sunami,

I am afraid that you are getting some Aerodramus swiftlets here which could hardly be identified to species level without a study in hand. In Borneo, at least 4 species occurs, the Germain's, Edible-nest, Black-nest and Mossy-nest. You would be able to identify them at the nest but would still continue to have difficulty with Germain's and Edible-nest that both had white nest.

Do you have any shot of the rump? The Black-nest and Mossy-nest in Sabah shall have dark rumps that has the same colors as the rest of the upperparts while the Germain's and Edible-nest shall have noticeable pale rumps. Or else it is too difficult to help you solve the mystery, but inland Sabah, the Edible-nest Swiftlets would be the most numerous species around.

Thanks a lot for your valuable information. These photos are all that I took. To be honest, I felt that I might not complete identification when I looked at books such as Craig Robson's "Birds of South-east Asia," Holland. Sevelal swiftlets described there awfully resemble each other, then I almost abandoned identification.

However, I would like to rely on experts' knowledge and experience. Thank you again and appreciate your taking time replying to a newcomer like me. In addition, I deeply appreciate Bird Photography Forum of Malaysia for providing this sort of useful web-site administrated by volunteers. We do not have such valuable forum in Japan yet.

Hideo Sunami wrote:Thanks a lot for your valuable information. These photos are all that I took. To be honest, I felt that I might not complete identification when I looked at books such as Craig Robson's "Birds of South-east Asia," Holland. Sevelal swiftlets described there awfully resemble each other, then I almost abandoned identification.

However, I would like to rely on experts' knowledge and experience. Thank you again and appreciate your taking time replying to a newcomer like me. In addition, I deeply appreciate Bird Photography Forum of Malaysia for providing this sort of useful web-site administrated by volunteers. We do not have such valuable forum in Japan yet.

Welcome..

Don't rely on Robson's on some of these birds because the colorations are very hard to be painted and therefore many are quite off, also another fact is that there would be quite an amount of shade and color variations in swiftlets as well, so sometimes even the rump color is not uniformly the same color among the same species, there are still no established secure way to identify Aerodramus swiftlet species safe in the field yet.