Swifts (Apodidae)
Silver-backed Needletail (Hirundapus cochinchinensis) - HBW 5, p. 440
French: Martinet de Cochinchine
German: Graukehlsegler
Spanish: Vencejo de la Cochinchina
Other common names: White-vented/Silver-backed Spinetail/Spinetailed Swift, White-vented/Grey-throated Needletail; Rupchand’s Needletail (rupchandi)
Taxonomy: Chætura cochinchinensis Oustalet, 1878, Saigon, Vietnam.
Genus formerly merged into Chaetura. Forms superspecies with H. caudacutus, with which in past sometimes considered conspecific. Race rupchandi has been listed as a megasubspecies. Race formosanus formerly placed in H. caudacutus, but has been shown to be virtually identical to nominate race of present species, to which it clearly belongs; indeed, may be better treated as synonymous with nominate, as grounds for racial split appear to be merely its isolated distribution. A single specimen from W Java, previously separated as form ernsti and variously .. View all taxonomy...
Genus formerly merged into Chaetura. Forms superspecies with H. caudacutus, with which in past sometimes considered conspecific. Race rupchandi has been listed as a megasubspecies. Race formosanus formerly placed in H. caudacutus, but has been shown to be virtually identical to nominate race of present species, to which it clearly belongs; indeed, may be better treated as synonymous with nominate, as grounds for racial split appear to be merely its isolated distribution. A single specimen from W Java, previously separated as form ernsti and variously treated as a distinct species or a race of H. giganteus, now synonymized with nominate race of present species. Three subspecies currently recognized.
Subspecies and Distribution:
- rupchandi (Biswas, 1951) - C Nepal; winters W Java, Sumatra and peninsular Malaysia.
- cochinchinensis (Oustalet, 1878) - NE India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur and possibly Mizoram), N Myanmar and SC China (Hainan), and scattered localities (status unclear) in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam; winters in Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and W Java.
- formosanus (Yamashina, 1936) - Taiwan; wintering area unknown.
- Least Concern
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