ML147512171

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

I am adding this entry over 3 years later (03/26/2019). The two photos I am attaching sat in my folder of "unidentified species" for all this time. When I looked at them yesterday, I realized that this is a Common Swift. I sent it to Julio and Sergio to make sure the ID is correct, and they both confirmed it. It seems to be only the second record in PR, with the first one being only about a month prior to this sighting (Juliann Rosado/Rincon). This means that there was at least one or possibly more Common Swifts that year on the west coast of PR. I still remember the day I took the photos: I had noticed a flock of Barn and Cave Swallows a bit south of Pta. Algarroba / La Boquilla, and I tried to photograph them. Mediocre camera and lousy lens, but it was good enough to capture these two images. The species is an Old World species, and very rare in this part of the world. The size is about 6.5 inches, with long, slender boomerang-type wings. It is blackish-brown with a whitish-gray chin patch. The species is known to be very loud ("screaming"), but I did not hear any sound. Frankly, it was "accidentally" photographed when I tried to practice photographing swallows in flight.

Technical information

Model

ILCE-6000

ISO

200

Focal length

107 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/2000 sec

Dimensions

1131 pixels x 723 pixels

Original file size

157.94 KB