spine-tailed swift

…soft-tailed swifts, and Chaeturinae, or spine-tailed swifts. Almost worldwide in distribution, swifts are absent only from polar regions, southern Chile and Argentina, New Zealand, and most of Australia.

In the spine-tailed swifts, a group that includes the familiar American chimney swift (Chaetura pelagica), the central shaft of the tail feathers extend beyond the vanes (the soft, flat, expanded parts of a feather) into pointed spines. In other swifts, with less specialized tail feathers, the tail…