Fork-tailed (Pacific) Swift, Shakespear regional park

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Michael Szabo
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Fork-tailed (Pacific) Swift, Shakespear regional park

Postby Michael Szabo » Mon Nov 28, 2022 6:51 pm

Bob Rigter reports via eBird seeing a Fork-tailed (Pacific) Swift flying along cliffs at pink beach, Shakespear regional park, Whangapaoroa peninsula today:
https://ebird.org/atlasnz/checklist/S123144776
Last edited by Michael Szabo on Tue Nov 29, 2022 7:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
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rukuhia
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Re: White-rumped Swift, Shakespear regional park

Postby rukuhia » Mon Nov 28, 2022 7:19 pm

I am not sure what species of swift it is as I don’t have a field guide with me. It was not a swallow as it was an all dark bird with an obvious white rump and never flapped its wings but flew with crescent shaped wings. I lost it before I could get a photo. It was larger than a swallow. Any suggestions?
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Michael Szabo
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Re: White-rumped Swift, Shakespear regional park

Postby Michael Szabo » Mon Nov 28, 2022 7:26 pm

Fork-tailed Swift aka Pacific Swift aka White-rumped SWift?
https://www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/specie ... iled-swift
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rukuhia
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Re: White-rumped Swift, Shakespear regional park

Postby rukuhia » Mon Nov 28, 2022 9:39 pm

Yes that is what it looked like.
Bob Rigter
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Oscar Thomas
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Re: White-rumped Swift, Shakespear regional park

Postby Oscar Thomas » Mon Nov 28, 2022 9:48 pm

Please submit a UBR and alter the eBird record to Pacific (Fork-tailed) Swift as the White-rumped Swift is a different species found in Europe/Africa.
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simon.fordham
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Re: Fork-tailed (Pacific) Swift (?), Tiritiri Matangi Island

Postby simon.fordham » Sat Jan 07, 2023 9:37 pm

Morag Fordham, along with Steve and Anna Sutcliffe, observed a swift over Tiritiri Matangi today. I don't seem to be able to upload Anna's MP4 video but the clearest 'still' is as follows. A white rump was clearly seen. Some parts of the video clearly show a forked tail. Two birds were seen together, later in the day.

swift.jpg
swift.jpg (15.09 KiB) Viewed 842 times

We are thinking it is a fork-tailed but any comment would be appreciated.
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simon.fordham
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Re: Fork-tailed (Pacific) Swift, Shakespear regional park

Postby simon.fordham » Tue Jan 10, 2023 11:19 am

Here is another screen grab from the video

swift2.jpg
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Oscar Thomas
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Re: Fork-tailed (Pacific) Swift, Shakespear regional park

Postby Oscar Thomas » Tue Jan 10, 2023 1:03 pm

simon.fordham wrote:Here is another screen grab from the video


Awesome find Simon. A couple images from this eBird checklist match your poses pretty close and show the similarity in structure. There are no other likely candidates for ID: https://ebird.org/checklist/S124034769

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