North American Bird Information Web Site - Database
		Home			Recent Postings
Black Swift                          Cypseloides niger (Gmelin)
Last updated: 2005 10 14
Click HERE for information on the British Columbia Black Swift Project and to submit data.
This spreadsheet includes the majority of British Columbia and Washington observations received for August 2005 to the present, plus a selection of reports from earlier dates and other jurisdictions.
Scroll down, or click on a state/province name to view observations from that jurisdiction.
Alaska
Alberta
British Columbia
Idaho
Washington
Click HERE to view the Black Swift Image Gallery
Click on a hyperlinked observer/source to view the citation for that record.
ALASKA
Date	State/ Province	Location	Number of Birds	Observers/Source	Notes, Including Age of Birds if Determined, Direction of Flight, Behaviour	Time
24-Jun-2005	AK	Mouth of the Stikine River, just above Hooligan Slough.	4	Renee Ward	Adult birds feeding over the water	1400
ALBERTA
Date	State/ Province	Location	Number of Birds	Observers/Source	Notes, Including Age of Birds if Determined, Direction of Flight, Behaviour	Time
04-Aug-2005	AB	Johnston Canyon, Banff National Park	see notes	Jason Rogers	"...the Johnston Canyon Black Swift nest contained a chick that I estimated to be 16 days old.  At about 19:45, an adult arrived at the nest and, after a few minutes, began feeding the chick.  Soon after, the adult began brooding the chick.  This lasted until at least 20:30, when I left the area."
30-Jun-2005	AB	Johnston Canyon	see notes	Jason Rogers	"... Four nest sites that were known to be active in Johnston Canyon last summer (two of which have been active for at least 8 and 24 years) appear to be vacant this year.  This morning I was able to confirm that only one of last year's nest sites has been reoccupied this year.  No other active nest sites were found.  Also Black Swifts have been largely absent from the sky over Johnston Canyon this year.  Only two sightings of 2-4 birds and 1 bird have been made this month...."
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Date	State/ Province	Location	Number of Birds	Observers/Source	Notes, Including Age of Birds if Determined, Direction of Flight, Behaviour	Time
18-Sep-2005	BC	Near 104th Avenue & 144th Street, Surrey	40	(Weber 2005)
03-Sep-2005	BC	94 Ave, North Delta	3	(Weber 2005)
01-Sep-2005	BC	South End Nimpkish Lake	22	Michael G. Shepard	Foraging over clearcuts and second growth forest.
03-Aug-2005	BC	Spruce Bay Beach, Lighting Lake, Manning Park	few	David Mark
02-Jul-2005	BC	Grant Narrows Nature Dyke Pitt Meadows	1000+	Rick Toochin, Corina Isaac	Flying low	1000
02-Jul-2005	BC	Eaglet Lake, Prince George area	100+	Cathy Antoniazzi, Nancy Krueger, C. Charlesworth et al.
01-Jul-2005	BC	Nulki Lake, Vanderhoof, BC	30	Cathy Antoniazzi, Nancy Krueger, C. Charlesworth et al.
01-Jul-2005	BC	Green Timbers area, Surrey	50	(Louth 2005a)
25-Jun-2005	BC	Grant Narrows Nature Dyke Pitt Meadows	75	Rick Toochin, Corina Isaac	Flying low	1000
15-Jun-2005	BC	Woss	50+	Michael G. Shepard, Paul Levesque	Foraging in loose association 200-500m overhead.	1830 onwards
12-Jun-2005	BC	Deer Lake, Burnaby	50	George Clulow, Carlo Giovanella	100% overcast. The loosely associated flock was widely distributed both horizontally (.5km approx. in extent) and vertically (from approx 20m off ground to invisible with naked eye at height, but identifyable with 8x bins). Birds circling and foraging, but drifting slowly west over time.	0800
12-Jun-2005	BC	Salmon Arm	75	Rick Howie
04-Jun-2005	BC	Pitt Meadows	100+	Rick Toochin, Corina Isaac
03-Jun-2005	BC	Dodd Narrows area, Cedar	30	Derrick Marven, Tania Tripp
22-May-2005	BC	Eaglet Lake, Prince George area	50-100	Jack Bowling et al.
19-Sep-2004	BC	Pedder Bay area	10	(Ross 2004)		Evening
18-Sep-2004	BC	Near Foul Bay Road and Fairfield Road, Victoria	9	Michael G. Shepard, Cynthia Shepard	Foraging low over residential forest.	1815
16-Sep-2004	BC	Reifel Bird Sanctuary	4	Rick Toochin, Mitch Meredith, Jamie Fenneman	Flying low over marsh catching insects all adult
16-Sep-2004	BC	Williams Lake	1	Phil Ranson	Foraging with swallows.	Evening
16-Sep-2004	B.C.	Chilliwack Lake Rd and McFaul intersection, Chilliwack	1	Gord Gadsden	Adult feeding with VASW. Flock moved to the SW.  Light Rain.	1505
12-Sep-2004	BC	Amphitrite Point, Ucluelet	5	Peter Candido	Apparently feeding, over land in vicinity of lighthouse.	1000
04-Sep-2004	B.C.	Hwy #1, 1.7 Km west of Gibson Rd overpass, Chilliwack	5	Gord Gadsden	Flying in circular feeding pattern.  Cloudy and calm	1308
04-Sep-2004	B.C.	Cheam Lake Wetlands, Chilliwack	1	Gord Gadsden	Flying directly southwest. Cloudy and calm	1450
04-Sep-2004	B.C.	Chilliwack Airport, Chilliwack	1	Gord Gadsden	Flying in west direction with 2 VASW.  Cloudy and calm	1242
04-Sep-2004	B.C.	Young Rd, 600 metres north of Hope Slough Bridge, Chilliwack	1	Gord Gadsden	Flew in from south and joined VASW flock in feeding pattern.  Remained higher then VASW flock. Cloudy and calm.	1225
03-Sep-2004	B.C.	Cheam Lake Wetlands, Chilliwack	1	Gord Gadsden	Direct flying in north direction from Bridal Falls into park	1238
03-Sep-2004	B.C.	Hwy #7, 9 Km east of Johnson Slough Bridge, Agassiz.	2	Gord Gadsden	Flying/feeding in southwest direction.  Cloudy with lgt wind.	1043
03-Sep-2004	BC	Cecil Green Park, UBC, Vancouver	6	Peter Candido	Flying.	0930
29-Aug-2004	BC	Williams Lake: Scout Island Nature Centre	20	Kris Andrews	Flying with swallows.	1530
28-Aug-2004	BC	Williams Lake: Scout Island Nature Centre	20	Kris Andrews		1700
27-Aug-2004	BC	Williams Lake: Scout Island Nature Centre	30	Kris Andrews	Flying in the rain. Raining lightly, and most of day, and previous days.	1730
21-Aug-2004	BC	Whistler, Brandywine falls	1	Paul Levesque, Rick Toochin, John Toochin	Chick on nest, raining heavily	1130
20-Aug-2004	BC	Whistler, Brandywine falls	1	Mark Wynja, Eleni Havalias	The swift appears full grown and is black except it has whitish lores and upper throat. The primaries, secondaries, and the tail are also finely tipped with white. I observed the bird for ~1 hour in total, for the most part it lay flat and motionless in the nest. The bird changed its positon twice, it roosted facing out fom the cliff, facing into it, and sideways facing away from the waterfall. It preened several times concentrating on its back and wings. At one point while facing into the rock face it appeared to nip at some vegetation (bug or condensed water?). I also observed it yawn once.	1330 to 1430, 1515 to 1545
19-Aug-2004	BC	Whistler, Brandywine falls	1	Danny Tyson	Chick sitting motionless in nest	1000
13-Aug-2004	BC	Brandywine Falls	1	Marcia Danielson, Grant Danielson, Nancy Ricker	1 chick in nest, turning, preening and extending wings
05-Aug-2004	BC	Brandywine falls, 14 km south of Whistler	6	Paul Levesque, Laurie Savard	5 adults briefly flying over falls, 1 chick in nest.	1130
03-Aug-2004	BC	Brandywine Falls, 14 km south of Whistler	1	Paul Levesque, Laurie Savard	1 chick in nest.	1115
02-Aug-2004	BC	Brandywine Falls, 14 km south of Whistler	3	Paul Levesque, Laurie Savard	Two adults, one chick. Click HERE to view a photo of two adults at the nest (courtesy Laurie Savard)	1300 to 1500
				Rick Toochin	Click HERE to view a photo of an adult (courtesy Rick Toochin)
26-Jul-2004	BC	Whistler Area: Brandywine Falls	1	Paul Levesque	adult on nest	1500
24-Jul-2004	BC	Quesnel Area: Kersley	2	Adrian Leather	over a cliff
18-Jul-2004	BC	Lillooet:  Sheep Pasture Marsh Texas Creek Road	15+	Ian Routley, Jeff O'Kelly	flying, feeding	2030
12-Jul-2004	BC	Grant Narrows Nature Dyke Trail Pitt Meadows: base of dyke near parking lot	150	Rick Toochin	flying
08-Jul-2004	BC	Prince George Area:  Eaglet Lake, viewed from Harold Mann Park.	100+	Carolyn McGhee, Jack McGhee	Circling over a large copse of tall poplars, clearly feeding.  Some Vaux's in among them - not many, and a lot of mixed swallows, waxwings and  other flycatching birds feeding much lower down over the lake at the same time.  Very overcast skies.	0855
06-Jul-2004	BC	Parksville-Qualicum	200	Guy Monty
05-Jul-2004	BC	Woss Area:  Near Rice Lake	76	Michael G. Shepard, Paul Levesque	Foraging from 5 to 700m above ground. Click HERE to view some photos of these birds.	1114
02-Jul-2004	BC	Woss Area:  Near Rice Lake	46	Paul Levesque, Michael G. Shepard	foraging mainly over second growth	1050
07-Jun-2003	BC	Bridge West of Radium Hotsprings	70-90	Peter Davidson, Ivar Petersen	Feeding below storm clouds
03-Jun-2004	BC	Highway 19 near Black Creek	200	Paul Levesque	Foraging over highway and adjacent clearcuts	mid afternoon
01-Jun-2004	BC	Williams Lake: Scout Island Nature Centre	50-100	Kris Andrews	flying under low clouds around 8 to 9 am. Rain previous night.	morning
30-May-2004	BC	Grant Narrows Nature Dyke Trail Pitt Meadows: base of dyke near parking lot	400	Rick Toochin	flying
29-May-2004	BC	Nulki Lake, Vanderhoof, BC	600	Jack Bowling, Cathy Antoniazzi, Nancy Krueger	Foraging over lake
24-May-2004	BC	Grant Narrows Nature Dyke Trail Pitt Meadows: base of dyke near parking lot	400	Rick Toochin	flying
IDAHO
Date	State/ Province	Location	Number of Birds	Observers/Source	Notes, Including Age of Birds if Determined, Direction of Flight, Behaviour	Time
03-Jul-2005	ID	North Fork Coeur d'Alene River	1	Kas Dumroese	"... 6 active nests. This is the most I've seen since I started keeping track in 1997...."
WASHINGTON
Date	State/ Province	Location	Number of Birds	Observers/Source	Notes, Including Age of Birds if Determined, Direction of Flight, Behaviour	Time
30-Aug-2005	WA	Junction of Skagit and Cascade Rivers.	48	Larry Schwitters	Large late feeding flock in front of a front.	1930 to 2005
10-Aug-2005	WA	Near Olympia	1	Douglas Canning
08-Jun-2005	WA	Marymoor Park, Redmond, King Co.	30	Brian Bell et al.	Over lake
15-Sep-2004	WA	Marymoor Park, Redmond, King Co.	20	Michael Hobbs	20-25 over the north end of Lake Sammamish
15-Aug-2004	WA	Shi Shi Beach, Clallam Co.	10	Michael Hobbs
26-May-2004	WA	Marymoor Park, Redmond, King Co.	100	Michael Hobbs	At lake, filling the sky.  In the rain.
13-Jun-2003	WA	Teanaway North Fork Rd. and lower FS-9738, Kittitas Co.	40	Michael Hobbs	Speeding overhead, some high, some low, nonstop throughout our walk back.
31-May-2000	WA	Marymoor Park, Redmond, King Co.	75	Michael Hobbs	Over north end of Lake Sammamish
11-Jun-1998	WA	Marymoor Park, Redmond, King Co.	100	Michael Hobbs	Maybe more than 100.
10-Jul-1997	WA	Marymoor Park, Redmond, King Co.	74	Michael Hobbs
23-May-1996	WA	Marymoor Park, Redmond, King Co.	100	Michael Hobbs
18-Aug-1995	WA	Marymoor Park, Redmond, King Co.	100	Michael Hobbs	At least 100!
Citations
Andrews, Kris. 2004. New Black Swift sighting for Scout Island, Williams Lake-Aug 27, 2004. E-mail communication received August 27, 2004.
Andrews, Kris. 2004. Re: New Black Swift sighting for Scout Island, Williams Lake-Aug 27, 2004. E-mail communication received September 14, 2004.
Antoniazzi, Cathy. 2005. Swainson's Hawks, Black Swifts etc. Communication posted to NCENBIRD newsgroup on July 4, 2005.
Bell, Brian H. 2005. Marymoor 8 June. Communication posted to TWEETERS newsgroup on June 11, 2005
Bowling, Jack. 2005. PG Big Day. Communication posted to NCENBIRD newsgroup on May 24, 2005.
Brown, Quentin. 2004. Black Swift. E-mail communication received August 28, 2004.
Candido, Peter. 2004. Black Swift Sightings. E-mail communication received September 7, 2004.
Candido, Peter. 2004. Black Swift. E-mail communication received September 16, 2004.
Canning, Douglas. 2005. Re: Black Swift status in Thurston County? Communication posted to TWEETERS newsgroup on August 11, 2005
Clulow, George. 2005. Black Swifts. E-mail communication received June 14, 2005.
Danielson, Grant and Marcia Danielson. 2004. BlackSwiftNest.xls. E-mail communication received August 13, 2004.
Dumroese, Kas. 2005. Black swifts. Communication posted to INLAND-NW-BIRDERS newsgroup on July 5, 2005.
Gadsden, Gord. 2004. July Records. E-mail communication received August 10, 2004.
Gadsden, Gord. 2005. Fw: bird data. E-mail communication received April 15, 2005.
Gatten, Jeremy. 2004. Black Swift sighting. E-mail communication received August 4, 2004.
Gatten, Jeremy. 2004. Another Black Swift report. E-mail communication received August 6, 2004.
Hobbs, Michael. 2005a. Black Swift reports. E-mail communication received June 2, 2005.
Hobbs, Michael. 2005b. Re: Black Swift reports. E-mail communication received June 2, 2005.
Howie, Rick. 2005b. Black Swift. Communication posted to BCINTBIRD newsgroup on June 12, 2005.
Jellicoe, Len. 2004. Swifts. E-mail communication received August 13, 2004.
Leather, Adrian. 2004. Black Swifts. E-mail communication received July 26, 2004.
Levesque, Paul. 2004. A few BLSW records. E-mail communication received July 28, 2004.
Levesque, Paul. 2004. BLSW sightings. E-mail communication received August 9, 2004.
Levesque, Paul. 2004. A few BLSW sightings. E-mail communication received August 23, 2004.
Louth, Kevin. 2005a. RBA - Sunday, July 3, 2005. Communication posted to BCVANBIRDS newsgroup on July 3, 2005.
Mark, David. 2005. Re: NORTHERN WHEATEAR in British Columbia, Black Swift database etc.Black swifts. E-mail communication received October 15, 2005.
Marven, Derrick. 2005a. Dodd Narrows. Communication posted to BCBIRDINGVANISLAND newsgroup on June 3, 2005.
McGhee, Carolyn. 2004. Eaglet lake in the rain. Communication posted to NCENBIRD newsgroup on July 8, 2004.
Monty, Guy L. 2004. A Few Additions. Communication posted to BCBIRDINGVANISLAND newsgroup on July 6, 2004.
Nicholson, Dean. 2004. Black Swift Record. E-mail communication received August 13, 2004.
Olson, Stan. 2004. BLSW data form. E-mail communication received August 25, 2004.
Ranson, Phil. 2004. Cariboo Birds 04/09/16. Communication posted to CARIBOO BIRDS newsgroup on September 17, 2004.
Rogers, Jason. 2005c. Black Swift et al. Communication posted to BCBIRDS newsgroup on June 30, 2005.
Rogers, Jason. 2005f. Banff swift update. Communication posted to BCBIRDS newsgroup on August 5, 2005.