Tropical Audubon Society

South Florida’s Voice of Conservation

Yesterday (1-4-16) while taking part in the Key Largo-Plantation Key CBC our entire party viewed a swift above one of the islands in eastern Florida Bay which by all accounts appeared to be from the genus Chaetura. A number of us have much experience viewing chimney swift and this is what we believed we were looking at. The bird was flying in our very near vicinity and above our heads for at least 15 minutes. We had very good visuals on it. No photos were taken and we did not hear it vocalizing. I do not have any experience with Vaux's swift and would not be able to differentiate the two. Understandably this sounds like an impossible sighting this time of year but I still wanted to post this in case it has any type of significance. Please take this for what it is which is extremely odd. I am aware of recent Vaux's sightings in the northern part of the state which reinforced the thought of posting this.