The whiskered treeswift (Hemiprocne comata) is a species of bird in the family Hemiprocnidae. It is the smallest of 4 species in genus Hemiprocne and is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical mangrove forest, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest.
Description: medium, unique white elongated ‘whiskers’ above and below eye, shaggy crest, deeply forked tail, sexes similar. male lores black; 2 elongated white ‘whiskers,’ 1 above eye from forehead extending past nape; ear chestnut; rest of head and throat, tail, upper and underwing coverts, and primaries dark metallic blue; each secondary has a large white spot on inner web; back to uppertail coverts, breast and upper belly bronze olive; lower belly and undertail coverts white. female lacks chestnut ear. imm plumage not known. bill black; eye dark brown; legs purplish brown.
HABITAT: The Whiskered Treeswift is a forest-living species which frequents small cover breaks such as tracks or streams,but it also follows the vegetation up around the highest emergent crowns in evergreen forest and locally in tall mangroves.
This species occurs from plains up to 1000-1100 metres on slopes, but it is often seen below 800 metres in N Malay Peninsula.
RANGE: The Whiskered Treeswift is found in SW Asia, in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
BEHAVIOUR: The Whiskered Treeswift feeds primarily on insects. It hunts from perches where it sits in upright posture, and from where it can have a good all-round vision of the surroundings.
Very agile in flight, it chases insects and small flying arthropods, even amongst the foliage but well below the canopy. The preys are usually taken on the wing, but it also picks off the food items when perched, or by hanging from the tip of a small branch. It may perform short sallies from its perch, close to the surface of the vegetation.
The courtship displays are poorly known, but noisy soaring has been reported at least for the largest species. Considering the head patter of the male, it probably enhances the white stripes and the chestnut patches of the ear-coverts by some adapted postures.The breeding pair is territorial during the breeding season.
This species is sedentary. The breeding pair remains in its nesting territory all year round.
FLIGHT: The Whiskered Treeswift is very agile and manoeuvrable in flight. The narrow, curved wings and the long tail streamers are very typical of fast fliers.
PROTECTION / THREATS / STATUS: The Whiskered Treeswift is relatively common in most parts of the range. However, this species is threatened by habitat loss due to clearance and degradation of forest within the range, in spite of its ability to exploit new habitats.
The Whiskered Treeswift is evaluated as Least Concern by Birdlife International.
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