About Swiftlet – What we need to know? (Part 1)

Since I left my high school, I never have the chance to touch again anything related to biology. It’s kind of refreshing to revisit this subject and dig out all those technical terms to satisfy my interest in knowing more about the swiftlet.

I understand not everybody likes to know about these. Just pay attention to the words in red colour. Thanks.

Taxonomy and Nomenclature

Kingdom : Animalia

Taxonomic Rank : Species

Common Name : Edible-nest Swiftlet

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Cladus : Eukaryota

Supergroup : Opisthokonta

Kingdom : Animalia - Animal, animals, animaux

Phylum : Chordata - chordates, cordado, cordés

Subphylum : Vertebrata - vertebrado, vertebrates, vertebras

Infraphylum : Gnathostomata

Superclassis : Tetrapoda

Classis : Aves - Birds, oiseaux

Subclassis : Carinatae

Infraclassis : Neornithes

Parvclassis : Neognathae

Order : Apodiformes - Hummingbirds, Swifts

Familia : Apodidae - Swifts

Subfamilia : Apodinae

Tribus : Collocaliini

Genus : Aerodramus -Oberholser, 1906 - Edible-nest Swiftlets

Species:Aerodramus fuciphagus (Thunberg, 1812)-Edible-nest Swiftlet

Subspecies : Direct children: Aerodramus fuciphagus amechanus (Oberholser, 1912)

Aerodramus fuciphagus dammermani (Rensch, 1931)

Aerodramus fuchiphagus fuchiphagus (Thunberg, 1812)

Aerodramus fuciphagus germani (Oustalet, 1876)

Aerodramus fuciphagus inexpectatus (Hume, 1873)

Aerodramus fuciphagus micans (Stresemann, 1914)

Aerodramus fuciphagus perplexus (Riley, 1927)

Aerodramus fuciphagus vestitus (Lesson, 1843)

Aerodramus fuciphagus javensis

So now you know that Aerodramus fuciphagus subset to Aerodramus (swiftlets), and swiftlets subset to hummingbirds/swifts.

Sometimes the biologists also call them Collocalia fuciphaga. This is the tribe name and referring also as the edible-nest swiftlets.