bbirdAMNH
commented
6 years ago Hi Praveen,
I have looked at this specimen in the collection and have included the photos I took for you. Unfortunately, the specimen itself is not in great condition nor was a good preparation and it is difficult to see the distinguishing characters as outlined in the paper you included.
Basically, there are no obvious clues from the placement in the drawers which can usually happen in these situations, to be able to say that the specimen isn't A. p. cooki, and based on the characters I could see, the black running through the white rump feathers, does lean towards the A. p. cooki ID. Plus a photo below shows the 2nd primary being only very slightly longer than the 1st which according to the paper, leans to cooki. The original ID from the old register books being A. p. cooki also helps it's identity crisis. Like I stated, it's also not a great specimen and difficult to see the other characters listed in the paper such as an accurate representation of the throat patch (the neck seems squished in laterally) and the ventral feathers are also difficult to see as the wings were prepared to hide them.
However, with the recent name changes and the 'messy' taxonomy around Cook's and Blyth's Swifts, it is difficult to find more resources to confirm the ID. (Howard and Moore, what our names are based on has put this swift with a white rump in with the Dark-rumped Swift, Apus acuticaudata cooki ).
I have included photos of the data tags for your reference as well. Please let us know what you think and if you can come to any further conclusions from the photos.
paintedstork
Hi there, I am wondering if this specimen is tagged incorrectly.
In pp 260 of The Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide (Rasmussen & Anderton 2012), the following is mentioned under Blyth's Swift
"A. leuconyx is widespread in S. Asia. Two other forms (Salim Ali's Swift A. salimalii, and Pacific Swift A. p. pacificus) have been considered to occur in S. Asia, but further study needed....a few Assam specimens have been identified as this [Salim Ali's]...Nominate A. pacificus has been listed as occurring in NE [North-east India] in winter but this likewise needs substantiation."
Hence A. pacificus leuconyx is the known species from India while nominate and salimalii are possible/hypothetical with no records of A. p. cooki.
Would you mind checking if this is actually cooki or just tagged as such ?
Perhaps this paper will also help in teasing out the ID https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/206244#page/11/mode/1up
If proven, this would be the first verifiable record of cooki for India though it might occur in Andaman & Nicobar islands.