BLACK SWIFTS in Little Cottonwood Canyon

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Tim Avery

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Jun 30, 2014, 12:07:52 AM6/30/14
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Tonight Kenny Frisch and I spent an hour looking for swifts in the lower stretch of Little Cottonwood Canyon. We saw 8 BLACK SWIFTS during our visit--at a minimum.  We saw pairs multiple times, as well as groups of 3 and 5 at the same time.  This was at Culpit Gulch/Thunder Mountain Falls area just a couple miles up canyon from the Park and Ride.  I was able to get some pretty good photos on this outing:

Composites:

Overhead:

3 together:

and a bunch more here:

Good Birding
Tim


Bryant Olsen

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Jun 30, 2014, 1:20:29 PM6/30/14
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Tim
I'm glad you were able to see some Black Swifts, but in looking through your photos I notice some of the birds labeled Black Swifts are actually not, such as this bird here which is a Violet-green Swallow: Utah Birds, Utah Birding, Utah Bird Photography | June 29th - BLACK SWIFT - Black Swift - Tim Avery Birding.com Photos  ,and for that reason I'm going to use your photo as an example of Swift ID. This is a narrow canyon, and especially in the late evening and early morning (the only time your likely to see Black Swifts here), everything is back-lit and appears dark when in the sky. There are a ton of Violet-green Swallow and White-throated Swifts in the canyon, and unless you get a good look at the overall shape of the bird, it's easy to miss ID one of them for a Black Swift. For this reason I advise extreme caution when looking for Black Swifts here, or anywhere for that matter. Last summer after I report them here, many people started looking for them, including some ornithologist who were here for a convention at Snowbird. Unfortunately these people, all of whom had no real knowledge or experience with Black Swifts, didn't know the right time and place to look for them, and began reporting large flocks of Black Swifts down by the quarry. I strongly feel they misidentified WT Swifts for Black Swifts, they were in the wrong place(I've never seen a Black Swift here, and on any given day you can see good numbers of WT Swifts riding the ridge line here), and the numbers they were reporting would be something of a record away from the west coast, there just aren't that many swifts moving through Utah. So I advise caution, and especially don't expect to be able to ID every Swift you see to species, often you only get a brief look and can't judge shape well, and have to just call them Swift Sp, and WT and Black Swifts will often be seen flying together, so just because one of them is a Black Swift, doesn't mean all of them are. 
First lets go over the habits of Black Swifts. They are very local and uncommon, with an extremely scarce nesting habitat, which is in shaded cracks in the spray of waterfalls, although they will also nest in cool damp caves. They leave their nesting falls at first light, literally at 5am when the Robins start to sing. Through the morning they will sometimes hang around their falls, flying around the falls socializing, but I've never seen a Black Swift at a falls after 8am. Then they go off to forage far and wide all day long, not returning until evening. Sometimes they return about an hour or so before sunset and fly around the vicinity of the falls, sometimes they don't returned until well after sunset and fly directly to roost. It seems the best time to see them at "Thunder mountain" Falls is near sunset when they come in to roost at the falls. So, if your seeing Swift in the canyon and your not near the falls and its not near sunset or early morning, your probably not seeing a Black Swift. But just because you are at the falls at sunset, doesn't mean they are necessarily Black Swifts, as both VG Swallows and WT Swifts can be seen here to, and the lighting at that time usually makes them look all dark. So you have to ID them by shape. 
Lets start with telling Swallows from Swifts. Swallows have shorter, broader wings, and a slower flight with frequent deep slow wing beats. Swifts have longer, narrower wings with stiff rapid shallow wing beats, and like their name impies, they are really, really fast. Also both WT and Black Swifts are larger than VG Swallows, although if your looking at a lone bird there is nothing for scale to judge size. Once you settle on the bird being a Swift, you tell them apart mostly by getting a good look at the tail. WT Swifts have a long deeply forked tail, however they usually hold the tail closed as they fly making the tail look very long,narrow and pointed. Black Swifts have a shorter, stouter tail that is nearly straight edged, or slightly notched, but not forked. Black Swifts also seem to have longer wings that are held more straight out, in WT Swifts the wings seem to be more strongly curved. The analogy I use is a WT Swift looks like a bow with an arrow on the string and the string pulled back and ready to fire, in a Black Swift it looks like an arrow in a bow thats notched on the string, but the string is loose and not ready to fire, I hope that makes sense to people without an archery background. If the 2 are together, which is not unusual, the larger size of the Black Swift is apparent as well. Another trick I use here is to watch the swifts as the fly, if they fly in front of the cliffs, the white on a WT Swift(or VG Swallow) will suddenly pop out and become visible. Also Black and WT Swifts have different wing beats, but they both can vary their wing beat depending on the speed they are flying at. So, I encourage everyone to look for Black Swifts here, but do your home work and double check your ID, and don't expect it to be an easy bird. And if you think 'Warbler Neck' is bad, wait until you get a good case of 'Swift Neck'
Good Birding
Bryant Olsen
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Mark Stackhouse

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Jun 30, 2014, 1:54:18 PM6/30/14
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Great analysis, Bryant.

You prompted me to review the photo set, that includes a number of great photos of Black Swift - swift photos are a real challenge. I noted several that are Violet-green Swallows (#'s 10, 15, and 16), and two that appear to be White-throated Swift (#'s 9 & perhaps 12).

Your cautions on swift i.d. are well taken, as are your notes on Black Swift behavior. I would add that Black Swifts don't always return to the nest every night, but are known to be away from the nest up to three days at a time, so the adults may not be in the nest in the morning, or return to the nest in the evening on any given day. That means that if you go to see them, they may not appear on the day you're there, so you may need several trips to see one.

Additional i.d. tips to separate Black from White-throated Swift include Black Swifts having broader wings, especially at the base, and a "lazier" flight, with slower wingbeats and longer glides - they can sometimes be seen gliding without flapping for several seconds - when White-throated Swifts glide, it's usually for only a very brief time of 1-2 seconds duration.

Good luck hunting swifts (one of my favorite things to do here in Mexico, where Black Swift is one of the medium-sized swifts)!

Mark

Mark Stackhouse
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01-323-285-1243 (San Blas, Nayarit)
001-801-518-5618 (cellular - U.S. and Mexico)
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Tim Avery

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Jun 30, 2014, 2:35:54 PM6/30/14
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Bryant and Mark,

Ah heck, thanks Bryant.  I think you got me here.  Now that I am finally slowing down form the past 72 hours of birding, blogging, photographing, and working, I see that I did in fact mis-label ONE individual.  It is the same shot the "composite" was made from.  I guess in my late night rush to hurry and get some photos up I didn't really even look at what I was editing. I guess that's what happens when you're staring at the heavens and start seeing stars.  The actual ID isn't that hard to make--especially in binoculars when you are looking at the birds--the flight style and shape and details are very obvious in the field.  The harder thing is when you start racing through a bunch of shots late at night and trying to label them in a hurry to share that info, all while on a business call.  Since no one else had really shared their swift sightings on the list in a timely manner this summer, I was trying to get it out so folks could try this morning..  You know that assessment would have been a great starter for the community, with some great info that would have been highly useful with an initial report of the swifts, but I guess this was a better time for it.

Mark, I will have to unfortunately disagree with your assessment, the rest of the birds are in fact ALL Black Swifts in the photos

Photo 10 -- that's the photo Bryant picked out
Photo 16 -- the exact same shot, but with two other photos for a composite

Photo 15 -- Now Mark, look how long those wings are.  The shape is all wrong for swallows--this was 3 birds flying together--this was 3 we watched long before I took the photos.

Photo 9 and 12 -- same individual and series as these shots:

It flew right over us and across the cliff face showing NO white beneath; Black Swifts, can show a slight fork when their tails are folded in--but WTSW would never be all black beneath in good light against a nice lit up background. However the flight style, and everything else was spot on for Black Swift. Angles in photos can create odd appearances--and a slight away angle does show that notch fairly nicely.

Now Bryant, I hate to be a stickler, but your mention of Ken Rosenberg as just "some ornithologist", is a tad insulting to them.  Saying "they don't know what to look for", is really kind of harsh.  Ken has been at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology since 1993 where he is currently the Director of the Lab’s Conservation Science Program ,and the captain of the Lab’s World Series of Birding team, the Sapsuckers.  I would venture that he probably knows quite a bit of what to look for.  Perhaps you could reach out to him and ask for more information.  I think just assuming the ID was botched and leaving it at that doesn't so this case justice.  As I mentioned, I was even skeptical--however, given who the birders were I like to think the alternate theory I poised is quite plausible, given the timing.  

Unless they have some sort of hard evidence, I guess we'll never really know. Except to spend a few nights that time of year checking the area--because what a spectacle we'd be missing out on if we didn't check it out, and that was happening right?  It's kind of like you deciding to check the waterfall in the first place--you'd never have known if you didn't look.
 
What a great forum to be able to share, help each other with identification, and continue learning as a community!  I really appreciate you guys taking the time to look over those photos and share your knowledge--we all can use help form time to time!

Good Birding Everyone!

Cheers
Tim

Matthew Pendleton

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Jun 30, 2014, 4:34:05 PM6/30/14
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I just read through everyone's comments and everyone made some good points and thoughts. Over the last couple of years I have been some what obsessed with Black Swifts, as some of you may already know. I think they are the most fascinating bird I have ever seen. Last year when the high numbers were reported I went and checked it out. I believe Bryant did the same. I saw the groups the were reporting and I saw a few of the people watching the Swifts the very night they sent in more reports. I saw only White-throated on two different nights at that spot. I believe that though the birders are great ornithologist and by all accounts probably better birders than I, they made a mistake. Easy to do when your in a group and you think something is one thing because you have seen it reported. I often am lazy with my bird IDs when in a group. As an example Tim is about as good a birder as anyone could hope to be but while looking through photos late at night in a hurry he made an assumption that lead to a miss labeled photo. This doesn't change the respect I have of him as an amazing birder. Just as the multiple larger Black Swift reports from last year were just wrong. Even the best of us make mistakes.

Mark Stackhouse

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Jun 30, 2014, 10:53:21 PM6/30/14
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Hola Tim,

Of course, you were the observer on the scene, so your observations would hold sway over any picture of one moment in time, and we both know how easily one photo can deceive. We apparently don't disagree about photos 10 and 16, that are clearly Violet-green Swallows. 

You claim that photos 9 and 12 are Black Swifts, and I respect your call - you were there. I only said that they "appear to be White-throated Swifts," knowing that foreshortening and   angle of view can change how the shape of the wings and the cleft of the tail appear in the photograph. In those photographs, they looked too narrow-winged and with a too-deeply cleft tail for Black Swift, but that could easily be just and artifact of those single photographs. Thank you for clarifying.

As for photograph 15, I respectfully have to take issue - again, realizing that you were the observer on the scene, and I can only judge from that single photo. In that photo, none of the birds clearly shows the shape well. The one at the bottom of the photo appears like it could be a swift, but the angles are too distorted to know. The one in the middle (I presume the one that you claim has wings that are too long) looks to me like it's wings are too short, triangular shaped, too bent at the wrist and too wide at the base for a swift. But the one that really swayed me was the one on the upper left, that looks very much like it's wings are folded. I look at that bird and have a hard time seeing how it could be any other way. Now we both know that swifts don't fold their wings in flight, but that swallows frequently do. I have a really hard time imagining how that particular bird could be a swift. But you were there, I wasn't. I'm just commenting on what the photographs look like.

With regards to "the expert," I'm sure you're correct that Ken Rosenberg knows what a Black Swift looks like, but please take a look at the e-Bird reports before taking Bryant to task for questioning the report from someone we all agree is an expert birder. During the time of the ABA convention, there are apparently three major reports of Black Swift, all from the unlikely lower Little Cottonwood Canyon area - no where near the falls where we see them. At that location, clearly you're talking about swifts that are very high-flying. The three reports are of 24, 40, and 65 individuals. The reports from Mr. Rosenberg are of 40 and 65 individuals.

Do you really think there could be a sighting of 65 Black Swifts in Utah? Do you think there are even 65 individuals in the whole state combined? Except for those three ABA convention reports, I can't find a single report in Utah of over 6 individuals. In fact, there aren't any of even close to that number in Colorado - very, very few double digit reports from there, and none anywhere close to 65, or even 40. To make it even more remarkable, I can't find a single report from anywhere in the U.S. of that number. The biggest number I can find was a fall migration sighting at Hawk Hill in Marin Co. California of 43 birds, and a sighting at a known migrant-funnel on the coast of Washington, of  36 individuals, also during fall migration.

So, as far as I can tell, that report of Ken Rosenberg's (and a few other observers) of 65 individuals (at the end of the breeding season) represents the largest number ever reported in the U.S. or Canada. Do you really think it's true?

I do know one thing, the ABA conventions are populated by lots of birders who, frankly, tend to over-rate their own abilities and experience. They also are heavily infected with "hopeful birder syndrome." Even an experienced birder can easily get swept into a hopeful birder euphoria over the sighting of a "life bird" when in the company of a large group of birders desperately wanting to see a bird.

Do I believe that Ken Rosenberg saw at least one or a few Black Swifts? Probably. Did he actually see the most ever reported in the U.S. at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon? Highly doubtful.

Remember, the only real difference between an expert and a beginning birder is that the expert has misidentified many, many more birds than the beginner. As someone who has misidentified many more birds than most folks, I am highly skeptical of the number of Black Swifts reported at the time of the ABA convention, expertise of the observers notwithstanding.

Enjoy the swifts (both the numerous White-throated and the rare Black) up there. In the meantime, I'll wait here for your birds, or ones from the mountains here to come down to the coast, where I did see a flock of about 75 Black Swifts flying low over the palms behind the beach one fall afternoon. Maybe it'll happen again this year.

Mark

Mark Stackhouse
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01-323-285-1243 (San Blas, Nayarit)
001-801-518-5618 (cellular - U.S. and Mexico)
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Tim Avery

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Jun 30, 2014, 11:35:16 PM6/30/14
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Mark,

Birding must be slow in Mexico today--or is it just that Mexico's world cup team choked so your looking for some kind of competition :)  THe photos are what they are, and you're welcome to your opinion.

This is my last bit and then I am taking a seat on the bench. With regards to the expert (Ken Rosenberg in this case), I would tend to give an expert a little more credit than just writing off his report as bollocks.  I took no one to task--in fact it was the other way around, in that the comments about the sighting were seemingly that the person that made the report didn't know what the heck they were doing.  I think it's perfectly fair to say, hey, that's not really a fair assumption and/or comment. I would prefer to give folks the benefit of the doubt and perhaps ask some questions and find out how good birders with scopes managed to misidentify 50 WTSW.  Do I believe that it COULD have happened.  AB-SO-FREAKING-LUTELY! Birds have wings and every year new types of discoveries are happening--Nazca Booby this week in California, etc.  That would explain why no one else saw the birds.  A migratory flock comes in one night, and leaves the following morning.  Anyone who goes later would think it was sheer madness.  Do I believe that it actually DID happen?  That's another question to itself.  Given that they reported ZERO WTSW, it seems highly unlikely.  But so do backyard Blackburnian Warblers and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in Salt Lake.  Would it be wrong of me to write off your report because you didn't get a photo, or you to write off mine because some detail seems amiss?  I think not.  

But hey, to each his own. Who knew a little blog piece about an excellent book, and some really interesting eBird reports would turn into a photo critique--I guess the whole point of the blog post was missed.

Good Birding
Tim

Bryant Olsen

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Jul 3, 2014, 9:43:00 PM7/3/14
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Tim et al
I've been working in the field with little access to e-mail, but I just thought I would chime in, realizing its a dead issue now. But lets just start with our common ground, Black Swifts are AWESOME birds with a very unique lifestyle, and they are one bird I have been obsessed with for a few years now, my comments were only meant to point out a miss labeled photo. But, there are real ID challenges with these birds, I know I have seen WT Swifts and mistaken them for Black Swifts, which is why I cautioned everyone to know what their looking for.
 As far as the eBird reports last August of huge flocks of Black Swifts, I guess we will really never know because none of those guys, over the 4 days they were watching them, got any photos or video to document their sightings that I know of. I did go up there and look for them shortly after they first reported them, and I did find a large flock of Swifts in the place they described, but they were to high to ID to species, even in the scope. I have gone to that spot many times since, and invariably there is always a large group of swifts riding the ridge line there, and every single one I have ever been able to ID to species there has been a WT Swift, and I've even seen WT Swifts them going to roost and/or nesting in the cracks on that ridge. I have 3 concerns with their reports
1. They were in the wrong place, not at the waterfalls. Again, I have never seen a Black Swift in that location.
2. The number they report would be unprecedented inland.
3. Not a single 1 of their reports has a single WT Swift in! Thats what sends up the red flag to me the most.
I bird in that canyon a lot, I'm current involved in the beginnings of Breeding Bird Surveys at Alta, and WT Swifts out number Black Swifts here by 100 to 1 in the canyon as a whole, and I have never seen a Black Swift more that 1/4 mile from the 2 falls where I discovered them going to roost and likely nesting(Culpits Gulch and "Thunder mountain falls"). The fact they saw not a single WT Swift at that location(the Quarry) seems extremely odd to me, and what it tells me is either they  assumed every Swift they saw was a Black Swift when in-fact they were WT Swifts, or they saw 1 or 2 Black Swifts and then assumed the rest were Black Swifts, when in-fact they were not. As their reports started coming in, I contacted a friend of mine who is the Utah International Partners in Flight representative, the guy who hosted the conference at Snowbird, and asked him to go over Black Swift ID with them, and if he thought there was any credibility to what was being reported. He basically told me that sometimes people in a group get carried away and not to take their reports to seriously. I don't know who any of those guys are, and don't really care either, science is about cold hard facts, not ego. The fact they are ornithologists only means we should hold them to a higher standard, they should have known the need to document what they saw. When I'm in the field I ALWAYS have a camera on me, just because you never know when you will need it, granted you can't photo every bird you see, and these are tough bird to photo, but they had 4 days to get proof, they didn't, or at least didn't publish it. If any normal birder reported that # of Black Swifts without proof, I doubt it would be validated, and it shouldn't be. I was later contact by the guy in-charge of the Black Swift project at the RMBO about their reports because he had suspicions about them too and wanted to know what I thought. I told him it seemed very unlikely to me. But I will be looking through the Swifts in that canyon come the end of August, on the off chance I'm wrong and there is a significant staging area for them here, that would be really cool, but I wont put any money on it.
Good Birding'
Bryant Olsen
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