The Vaux’s Swift is an extremely rapid flyer as the name suggests. It catches and eats insects while in flight. It nests on cliffs and in chimneys.
It lives from southern Alaska, down the west coast of the United States and throughout Mexico and Central America. The best place that I have found to get reliable up close views of this bird are at the visitors center, Dry Falls, Grant County, Washington State, USA.
Classification:
Order:
Family: Apodidae
Genus: Chaetura
Species: C. vauxi
Photos:
vauxs swift
Photo courtesy of kiwifoto.com. Check out more of his photos at www.kiwifoto.com/.
Ed. Note: I’ve tried to get photos of these birds on the wing and have found it impossible. The patience and skill necessary to get this photos is impressive to me.
Vauxs Swifts
"Every year in late August this chimney in NW Portland is brimming with thousands of Vauxs Swifts during a brief stop along their southerly migratory path. They’re out exploring the city for the greater part of the day. Every night though, when the light gets just low enough, each and every one of the birds tornadoes into the chimney, spinning about each other until the last one crams itself inside."
Photo courtesy of Marshall Ryan
Vaux’s Swifts at the Chapman School
Photo courtesy of Koalacanth
Video:
Commentary:
it’s just something of a coincidence that our vaux’s swift happens to like chapman school. so you go to chapman to see the swifts but they’re not “chapman’s swifts” as far as bird n… Read more…
Butterflies over the snow, and other western wonders « Towheeblog
At first, they were accompanied by Vaux’s Swift, several dozen. But the swallows just kept coming. At one point there were a dozen zig-zagging over the Rogue, occasionally dipping down to mak… Read more…
… bald eagle, and amphibian species. Sockeye salmon spawn along the shores of Chilko Lake the centerepiece of the park. The adjacent lands are also important habitat for Vaux’s swift… Read more…
and please consider participating in a swift night out, which calls upon observers throughout the ranges of chimney and vaux’s swift to find roost sites and conduct careful counts of the swif… Read more…
birding community e-bulletin for august
look for a tall shaft, chimney, or similar structure in the vicinity to locate where chimney swifts (central to east coast) or vaux’s swift (pacific coast) go to roost for the night in your a… Read more…
vaux’s swift (chaetura vauxi), a western species, abounded around tall dead trees when pioneer ornithologist jk townsend described it in 1839. both tree boles and broken branches, reamed out … Read more…
