Swift ID needed

Found this fella on the edge of a building. I suppose it must have bump into the tall building and drop down. Just after a few shots and before I can go and hold it up for ID, it flew off. Can anybody make out it's species or probable species? Thanks.



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WOW!!! Where did you get such rare shot? The back of the bird is most useful in identification, details are bit little here, looks like an Aerodramus swiftlet, probably Germain's Swiftlet?

Was dropping a friend off his apartment when we stop at the entrance and found it clinging onto the edge with it's wings less than an inch from ground. The first thing I did was take out my camera and took some shots. Manage to get about 8 shots before trying to move to the other angle for the back shots, then lift it up and have some ID shots of the wings spread out before giving it a lift to take off. But those never happen. It took off by itself just after the 8 shots.

Thanks.

oo..... now I understand why, so this is 1 inch from the ground.... the poor bird fell to the ground and apparently climb its way up but its tough for it coz swifts have very weak legs, so if they fell onto the ground and with no help, they would not be able to take off and would die there, explaining why it appeared in such an odd scenario as the Aerodramus swiftlets rarely cling themselves in such exposed environment.

So from your embedded memory in your brain, did you manage to recall sight of white on the rump or the bird is generally just brown including rump?

Sorry tou for this late reply. Been busy with branch matters.

That's what we thought and am going to give it a lift for take off after we are done but it doesn't need that lift as it can take off without any difficulty. That makes us wonder if it belongs to the Aerodramus family, especially the Aerodramus Fuciphaga which would have difficulty take off without the drop. Unfortunately, we did not see the bird taking off clearly as I only caught the glimpse in the view finder and did not notice the rump.

alphan wrote:Sorry tou for this late reply. Been busy with branch matters.

That's what we thought and am going to give it a lift for take off after we are done but it doesn't need that lift as it can take off without any difficulty. That makes us wonder if it belongs to the Aerodramus family, especially the Aerodramus Fuciphaga which would have difficulty take off without the drop. Unfortunately, we did not see the bird taking off clearly as I only caught the glimpse in the view finder and did not notice the rump.

It may need a small distance to drop and take off then if in that case and quite surprising as it could within half an inch, but if they do touch on the ground, they are usually grounded, I suspected that it tries to climb up the wall, their claws are adapted to cling very good on walls, but their feet is weak, so it may take them a lot of effort, it probably had not climbed high enough yet but being approaches, it tries to fly off and it works, from the structure and feet, it is no doubt this is a swift.

The Aerodramus fuciphaga is recently suggested to be split into two species, the forms that were common in the Peninsular is the Aerodramus germani, the A. g. germani (nominated race) probably distribute as south as Penang and A. g. amechana the rest of the Peninsular as well as off coastal East Malaysia. In East Malaysia interior, it is the A. f. vestitus, so even split, we have both species, some race of A. fuciphaga is also believed to occur in Peninsular as well due to a few weird individuals collected, for example one from Tioman looks like some form of A. fuciphaga.

Is this Aerodramus fuciphaga is the same species found in bird house? If so, then I try to locate the nearest bird house around for possible close up shots. Very confusing indeed.

It must have tried climbing up higher but having reached the top of that ledge, it cannot go higher.

alphan wrote:Is this Aerodramus fuciphaga is the same species found in bird house? If so, then I try to locate the nearest bird house around for possible close up shots. Very confusing indeed.

It must have tried climbing up higher but having reached the top of that ledge, it cannot go higher.

The situation with which species they should be in the Aerodramus complex is still unresolved, the domesticated house form may had been a new taxon, where did you get this? Changes of being this domesticated form is very high.

Taken at the bottom of a condo in town Kuching.

alphan wrote:Taken at the bottom of a condo in town Kuching.

At Kuching, the germani and fuciphagus (vestitus) could likely meet......

Germani in Borneo? No record here in Borneo, according to guide book.

alphan wrote:Germani in Borneo? No record here in Borneo, according to guide book.

depends on which guide book you refer to..... I guess must be Susan Myer's right? It is in Philips' and also more trustable source of "Swiftlets of Borneo". There were quite some mistakes in Susan Myers and even the Oystercatcher is left out, probably by accident....

Yeah, correct. Susan's book, the color are more life like. I only refer to Philip's book where I need more info.

alphan wrote:Yeah, correct. Susan's book, the color are more life like. I only refer to Philip's book where I need more info.

You need to refer to both, both books have their own strengths and weaknesses. For swiftlets taxanomy I follow "Swiftlet of Borneo" as the authors are more expert in the field and did lots of field work on them, I was quite surprised that Susan Myer's did not adopt that taxanomical placement in her book and didn't even mention amechana as a recognized subspecies of Edible-nest Swiftlets in Borneo.

For more older scientific facts and more stronger references, I will flap on my newly acquired Smythies' "The Birds of Borneo".

Very true. Just that as novice, I still got a ton to learn until the level where some guide books are insufficient. Of course there's no guide which can cover all, otherwise all other authors will close shop.

I am surprised that you got such interest on birds in Borneo other than your native Peninsular Malaysian birds. You should come over for some birding sometimes.

alphan wrote:Very true. Just that as novice, I still got a ton to learn until the level where some guide books are insufficient. Of course there's no guide which can cover all, otherwise all other authors will close shop.

I am surprised that you got such interest on birds in Borneo other than your native Peninsular Malaysian birds. You should come over for some birding sometimes.

yaya, my only birding experience in Borneo so far is a short backyard birdwatching at Bandar Seri Begawan when I was stranded there for 1 night and at least got an endemic subspecies of Oriental Magpie Robin (adamsi) there. I am interested with what can be found in Malaysia as a whole, currently such information is still weak, one of my current effort is to properly name every species of bird within Malaysia in standard Malay, such effort had not been done for the East Malaysian side and some species there may not have any proper Malay names yet. Birding in Borneo is definitely in my future plan, will definitely be there but not now yet, unless there are some business trip that will bring me to Borneo soon.

Anytime you got time, just drop in to Kuching. AA flies here at time below a hundred bucks all in one way. The rest I take care.... Open for all forumers here.

alphan wrote:Anytime you got time, just drop in to Kuching. AA flies here at time below a hundred bucks all in one way. The rest I take care.... Open for all forumers here.

for the moment its not about the money but more about time.... may need a few years to settle down with my career first.....

jytou wrote:

alphan wrote:Anytime you got time, just drop in to Kuching. AA flies here at time below a hundred bucks all in one way. The rest I take care.... Open for all forumers here.

for the moment its not about the money but more about time.... may need a few years to settle down with my career first.....

Yeah, but you are young and still a long way yet LOL.

alphan wrote:

jytou wrote:

alphan wrote:Anytime you got time, just drop in to Kuching. AA flies here at time below a hundred bucks all in one way. The rest I take care.... Open for all forumers here.

for the moment its not about the money but more about time.... may need a few years to settle down with my career first.....

Yeah, but you are young and still a long way yet LOL.

Thanks.