Whiskered Treeswift: Courtship and mating

The Whiskered Treeswift (Hemiprocne comata) is distinctive in its white facial stripes. It is a forest species and resident in Malaysia. In Singapore it is a rare, non-breeding visitor, although it used to be a fairly common resident before.

Mark Chua a.k.a cajuka managed to document the intimate moments of a pair of Whiskered Treeswifts that ended in copulation.

The image on the left shows the male with his chestnut ear-coverts that is lacking in the female on his left.

It appears that very little is known of the breeding behaviour of this species and every little observation helps to increase our knowledge of this bird.

The nest is a half-saucer of feathers and saliva attached to a thin branch. A single egg is laid. Both the adults incubate the egg and tend to the young.

The images above and below show the male in the process of mounting the female to effect cloacal contact that lasts only a few seconds.

An earlier post gives the nesting behaviour of the Grey-rumped Treeswift (Hemiprocne longipennis).

All images by Mark Chua.

This post is a cooperative effort between www.naturepixels.org and BESG to bring the study of bird behaviour through photography to a wider audience.