Stats

Lifespan

4-14 yrs

Size

Small

Diet

Insectivore

Activity

Diurnal

Social

Flock

Biome

Temperate forest

Range

North America

Movement

Flight

Breeding

Egg-laying

Defense

Speed

Status

Vulnerable

About

This sooty gray bird lives in hollow trees and vertical stone shafts. It cannot perch and spends its entire life in flight, even sleeping on the wing.

Life cycle

1. 1.
   egg

   A clutch of eggs is incubated in the nest, kept warm by a brooding parent until the chicks pip free.
2. 2.
   hatchling

   A naked or downy hatchling is fed in the nest by its parents.
3. 3.
   juvenile

   A feathered juvenile fledges from the nest and learns to fly and forage.
4. 4.
   adult

   Fully grown with adult plumage.

Learn more

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Taxonomy

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Apodiformes

Family

Apodidae

Genus

Chaetura

Species

Chaetura pelagica