Apodidae
アマツバメ科
ama-tsubame ka

General

Information is from dictionaries and other sources. Species list may not be current. Korean glosses are tentative. Comments and corrections welcome. Hover over Green Lettering Green lettering at this site hides a tool tip with glosses, further explanations, etc. Hover cursor to reveal. to see additional information.

The swifts are known in Japanese as アマツバメ ama-tsubame or 'rain swallows', written in Chinese characters as 雨燕. The Japanese word for 'rain' is ame 雨, which becomes ama- in combination under an ancient morphological rule. Unqualified, アマツバメ ama-tsubame refers to A. pacificus.

Other names include アマドリ ama-dori (雨鳥) 'rain bird' or アマクロツバメ ama-kuro-tsubame (雨黒燕) 'rain black swallow'.

The swifts are linguistically associated with swallows. In a possible case of borrowing, both Chinese and Japanese call the swifts 'rain swallows', written with the same characters. Although the characters are the same, however, Japanese uses the kun-reading (native Japanese reading) of the characters, suggesting that the name arose natively in Japanese. Korean has a separate name for the swifts.

The swiftlets (not found in Japan) are called by the separate name アナツバメ ana-tsubame, written 穴燕 and meaning 'hole swallows', presumably because of their nesting habits. The edible nests of the swiftlets are known as つばめのす tsubame no su (燕の巣) 'swallow's nests'.

Species names

APODINAE
SCIENTIFIC & WESTERN		JAPANESE		CHINESE			KOREAN
Hirundapus
Latin	Eng, Fr, Ger, Ru	Japanese	Other J	Chinese	Chinese (Taiwan)	Other Ch	Korean
Hirundapus caudacutus Hirundapus caudacuta Chaetura caudacuta	White-throated needletail White-throated spine-tailed swift Spinetail swift Martinet épineux Stachelschwanzsegler Иглохвостый стриж	ハリオアマツバメ (針尾雨燕) hari-o ama-tsubame 'needle-tailed rain-swallow'		白喉针尾雨燕 (白喉針尾雨燕) bái-hóu zhēn-wěi yǔ-yàn 'white-throated needle-tailed rain-swallow'	(白喉针尾雨燕) 白喉針尾雨燕 bái-hóu zhēn-wěi yǔ-yàn 'white-throated needle-tailed rain-swallow' Taiwan formerly: (针尾雨燕) 針尾雨燕 zhēn-wěi yǔ-yàn 'needle-tailed rain-swallow'	山燕子 (山燕子) shān yànzi 'mountain swallow' (FS) 针尾沙燕 (針尾沙燕) zhēn-wěi shā-yàn 'needle-tailed sand-swallow' (FS)	바늘꼬리칼새 baneul-kkori-kal-sae 'needle-tailed swift bird'
Apus
Latin	Eng, Fr, Ger, Ru	Japanese	Other J	Chinese	Chinese (Taiwan)	Other Ch	Korean
Apus pacificus	Fork-tailed swift or Pacific swift Large white-rumped swift Larger white-rumped swift Northern white-rumped swift Martinet de Sibérie Pazifiksegler Белопоясничный стриж	アマツバメ (雨燕) ama-tsubame 'rain-swallow'		白腰雨燕 (白腰雨燕) bái-yāo yǔ-yàn 'white-rumped rain-swallow'	(叉尾雨燕) 叉尾雨燕 chā-wěi yǔ-yàn 'fork-tailed rain-swallow' Taiwan formerly: (白腰雨燕) 白腰雨燕 bái-yāo yǔ-yàn 'white-rumped rain-swallow'	雨燕 (雨燕) yǔ-yàn 'rain-swallow' (dict) (FS) 野燕 (野燕) yě-yàn 'wild swallow' (FS) 白尾根麻燕 (白尾根麻燕) bái-wěi-gēn má-yàn 'white-wing-rooted flax swallow' (FS) 白尾根雨燕 (白尾根雨燕) bái-wěi-gēn yǔ-yàn 'white-wing-rooted rain-swallow' (FS)	칼새 kal-sae 'swift bird'
Apus nipalensis	House swift Martinet malais Haussegler Стриж домовой	ヒメアマツバメ (姫雨燕) hime ama-tsubame 'princess rain-swallow'		Apus affinis (1, 3, 5), Apus nipalensis (2, 4): 小白腰雨燕 (小白腰雨燕) xiǎo bái-yāo yǔ-yàn 'small white-rumped rain-swallow'	(小雨燕) 小雨燕 xiǎo yǔ-yàn 'small rain-swallow' Taxonomy		쇠칼새 soe-kal-sae 'small swift bird'

中国鸟类种和亚种分类名录大全（修订版） 郑作新 著 科学出版社 北京 2000年
A Complete Checklist of Species and Subspecies of the Chinese Birds (Revised Edition) by Cheng Tso-Hsin, Science Press, Beijing 2000

中国鸟类分类与分布名录 主编：郑光美 科学出版社 北京 2005年
A Checklist on the Classification and Distribution of the Birds of China Chief editor: Zheng Guangmei, Science Press, Beijing 2005

中国鸟类野外手册（中文版）约翰・马敬能、卡伦・菲利普斯，合作者：荷芬奇，翻译：卢和芬 湖南教育出版社 长沙 2000年
A Field Guide to the Birds of China (Chinese translation) by John MacKinnon, Karen Phillipps, in collaboration with He Fen-qi, translated by Lu Hefen, Hunan Jiaoyu Chubanshe (Hunan Educational Press) Changsha 2000

世界鸟类分类与分布名录 主编：郑光美 科学出版社 北京 2002年
A Checklist on the Classification and Distribution of the Birds of the World Chief editor: Zheng Guangmei, Science Press, Beijing 2002

世界鸟类名称（拉丁文、汉文、英文对照）第二版 郑作新等 科学出版社 北京 2002年
Birds of the World (Latin, Chinese and English Names) 2nd ed. by Cheng Tso-Hsin et al, Science Press, Beijing 2002