African Black Swift

The African black swift (Apus barbatus), also known as the African swift or black swift, is a medium-sized bird in the swift family. It breeds in Africa discontinuously from Liberia, Cameroon, Zaire, Uganda and Kenya southwards to South Africa. The "black swifts" of Madagascar and the Comoros are either taken as two subspecies of the African black swift, or otherwise deemed a full species, the Malagasy black swift. == Taxonomy == The African black swift was formally described in 1866 by the English zoologist Philip Sclater under the binomial name Cypselus barbatus based on a specimen collected in the Cape Province of South Africa. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "bearded". The African black swift is now one of sixteen species placed in the genus Apus. This species is also known as the African swift and the black swift. Seven subspecies are recognised: A. b. glanvillei Benson, CW, 1967 – Sierra Leone and possibly adjacent Liberia and Ivory Coast; small breeding population discovered in Ghana perhaps extends to adjacent Togo A. b. serlei De Roo, AEM, 1970 – western Cameroon (Bamenda Plateau) A. b. roehli Reichenow, A, 1906 – northeastern Uganda and northern Kenya to eastern Democratic Republic of the…