Avian commensals in Colonial America: when did Chaetura pelagica become the chimney swift?

Abstract

The clearing of primeval forest in eastern North America by European colonists led to a profound shift in the breeding ecology of the chimney swift (Chaetura pelagica). Historical accounts show that the swift, which nested in hollow trees during the pre-Colonial era, began nesting in chimneys as early as 1672 in New England, indicating that it was among the first native North American birds to nest commensally in European dwellings. Based on historical descriptions of nest sites and on changes in its vernacular name, the swift nested almost exclusively in chimneys on the Atlantic coastal plain by the late eighteenth century. Tree-nesting is now a rare phenomenon and fewer than two dozen instances of such behavior have been reported since 1900.