NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Christmas Island Swiftlet
Collocalia natalis Lister, 1889
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Collocalia natalis, Christmas Island 6798, Christmas Island, 2018-02-11 (iNaturalist).
ian_mcallan · CC BY 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The Christmas Island swiftlet (Collocalia natalis), also known as the Christmas glossy swiftlet or the Christmas cave swiftlet, is a small bird in the swift family Apodidae. It is endemic to Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the eastern Indian Ocean. It was formerly commonly treated as a subspecies of the glossy swiftlet.
Wikipedia contributors, Christmas Island swiftlet; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T11:11:30.664346+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Collocalia natalis Lister, 1889
- Name authority
- Lister, 1889
- Common name
- Christmas Island Swiftlet
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Apodiformes
- Family
- Apodidae
- Genus
- Collocalia
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderApodiformes
- familyApodidae
- subfamilyApodinae
- genusCollocalia G. R. Gray, 1840
- speciesCollocalia natalis Lister, 1889
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Collocalia. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Bornean SwiftletCollocalia dodgei Richmond, 1905 | ApodidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Ridgetop SwiftletCollocalia isonota Oberholser, 1906 | ApodidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Grey-rumped SwiftletCollocalia marginata Salvadori, 1882 | ApodidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Drab SwiftletCollocalia neglecta G. R. Gray, 1866 | ApodidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Tenggara SwiftletCollocalia sumbawae Stresemann, 1925 | ApodidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Satin SwiftletCollocalia uropygialis G. R. Gray, 1866 | ApodidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Glossy SwiftletCollocalia esculenta (Linnaeus, 1758) | ApodidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Cave SwiftletCollocalia linchi Horsfield & F. Moore, 1854 | ApodidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Collocalia esculenta natalis Lister, 1889 Lister, 1889 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=1149398 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:8K3MT. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.