Mayr’s Swiftlet Aerodramus orientalis: A reinterpretation

Michael Tarburton
pp. 129-131


Abstract

Mayr’s Swiftlet Aerodramus orientalis was described from two specimens, one each from the islands of Guadalcanal and New Ireland, 880 km apart and with many other islands between. Both had blue gloss on the dorsal surface and a pale rump and, although one had naked tarsi, the other had feathered tarsi. It is here shown that these features are found on some Uniform Swiftlets A. vanikorensis, with which there is considerable size overlap, and so it is more consistent to subsume Mayr’s Swiftlet into the Uniform Swiftlet.


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