About Stelgidopteryx serripennis (Audubon, 1838)
This species is the northern rough-winged swallow, with the scientific name Stelgidopteryx serripennis (Audubon, 1838). Adult northern rough-winged swallows measure 13–15 cm (5.1–5.9 in) in length, have a wingspan of 27–30 cm (11–12 in), and weigh 10–18 g (0.35–0.63 oz). Adults are brown on the upperparts and white on the underparts, with a small bill and a forked tail. Their throat is white with a brownish-grey wash, with white underparts below the throat. Males differ from females in two physical traits: their undertail coverts are longer and broader, and they have hooked barbs on the outer web of their outer primary wings. Females have shorter, straighter barbs than males. Juveniles can be told apart from adults by their reddish-brown wing-bars. Northern rough-winged swallows are similar in appearance to bank swallows, but have a dusky throat and breast. They are closely related and very similar to the southern rough-winged swallow, Stelgidopteryx ruficollis, but the southern rough-winged swallow has a more contrasting rump, and the ranges of the two species do not quite overlap. This species is native to the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the United States. It is vagrant in Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, and Sint Maarten. Populations breeding in the United States and Canada winter in the southernmost United States and areas further south. Populations living in Mexico and further south are non-migratory, though they make local post-breeding movements. In Costa Rica, this swallow has been recorded at elevations up to 2,500 m (8,200 ft).
