Whiskered Treeswift
Photos taken at Taman Rimba Ampang halfway on
the road near the house with concrete fish ponds. Used my Sigma 80-400mm OS on
monopod. Was trying out my new Manfrotto 488RC2 ball head. Cost me RM290 bought
from Desmond Heng at Lot 1.99 Pertama Kompleks. They got a full selection of
gadgets there. Nice salesperson too.Met fellow birders Kim and Uncle Tan ...regulars here. Saw them in Raptor Watch 2006 in Tjg Tuan too.
Coming back to the bird ...... got the Id from my fellow birding group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/birders. Do join up for daily updates and happenings in birding in Malaysia. Its FREE.
Treeswifts are a small Asian family of four similar species, all within the genus Hemiprocne. Among them is the striking and colorful Whiskered Treeswift (left; dorsal and ventral views of the same bird). Its range is restricted to the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines, Borneo, and Sumatra. It is a forest species, mostly found perched near the canopy on a dead tree or other observation point. I was lucky this time to catch them hunting at eye level from the road about 150ft across the river.
From the vantage point they makes short sallies to catch flying insects and back to the same point. Whiskered Treeswift is the only one in the family to have this foraging technique. The remaining species capture their insect prey in gliding flight over the tree tops, or over rivers and open country.
The bird can also be sighted in Panti Forest Reserve, Johor, Malaysia
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