The southern rough-winged swallow (Stelgidopteryx ruficollis) a species of bird in the family Hirundinidae, the swallows and martins. It is found in Central America from Honduras south, in every mainland South American country except Chile, on Trinidad, and as a vagrant to Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Tobago, and the Falkland Islands.
Taxonomy and systematics
The southern rough-winged swallow was originally described in 1817 as Hirundo ruficollis by French ornithologist Louis Vieillot in his Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle. It was later reassigned to its present genus Stelgidopteryx which was erected in 1858.
The southern rough-winged swallow has these four subspecies:
Distribution and habitat
The subspecies of the southern rough-winged swallow are found thus:
- S. r. decolor: western Costa Rica and western Panama
- S. r. aequalis: northern Colombia, western Venezuela, and Trinidad
- S. r. ruficollis: from southeastern Colombia south through eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, and eastern Bolivia into northern and northeastern Argentina as far as Buenos Aires Province; from there east across southern and eastern Venezuela, the Guianas, and all of Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay
Behavior
Movement
The southern rough-winged swallow is a partial migrant. During the austral winter it vacates southern South America to north of a line roughly from northern Argentina east to the Atlantic in Brazil's São Paulo state. North of that line the species is a year-round resident, some of whose populations are increased by migrants from the south. The details of where the migrants winter are lacking but some individuals have traveled as far north as Colombia and Suriname. It forms large flocks in the non-breeding season. -->