Hemiprocnidae Treeswifts
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Introduction
Treeswifts perch in trees and their feet resemble those of other perching birds. Their nestbuilding is unique, though. They use saliva to bind together their soft half-nest, then incubate while perching upright, making it less obvious to predators that they are incubating. Their forked tail and unusual feathered ornamentation on their faces or foreheads (hence their other common name, whiskered swifts) further distinguish them from the much more speciose Apodidae. Treeswifts spend less time flying than true swifts, and though they may fly somewhat more slowly and with deeper wing-strokes, their flight still most closely resembles that of the swifts.
Habitat
Treeswifts live in wooded habitats from open woodlands and forest edge to dense rainforest, where they forage for insects above the canopy.
Diet and Foraging
Treeswifts are exclusively insectivores, taking a wide variety of flying insects on the wing and sometimes from the surface of leaves in the canopy. They sometimes limit their foraging to a nesting territory as small as the canopy of a single tree.
Breeding
Treeswifts appear to be monogamous, with biparental care. They build a small half-nest, which fits only a single large egg. Nests are placed on the side of a thin horizontal branch, glued there with saliva. Nests are constructed mainly of feathers, bark, and moss and lichen, all glued together with saliva. Both parents are active in all aspects of parental care, from nest construction through incubation and brooding, to feeding the chick, and limited data indicate that incubation takes about three weeks, fledging about four, and post-fledging care at least another three or so.
Conservation Status
There are no immediate conservation concerns for any of the treeswifts.
Systematics History
Hemiprocnidae is in Caprimulgiformes, within which it is part of the clade that made up the traditional Apodiformes along with Apodidae and Trochilidae. The treeswifts are sister to the swifts, and these taken together are sister to the hummingbirds (Barrowclough et al. 2006, Ericson et al. 2006a, Hackett et al. 2008, Braun & Huddleston 2009, Mayr 2010, Mayr 2011). These three families taken together are sister to Aegothelidae (Barrowclough et al. 2006, Ericson et al. 2006a, Hackett et al. 2008, Braun & Huddleston 2009, Mayr 2010, Mayr 2011).
Conservation Status
Least Concern |
100%
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Near Threatened |
0%
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Vulnerable |
0%
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Endangered |
0%
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Critically Endangered |
0%
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Extinct in the Wild |
0%
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Extinct |
0%
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Not Evaluated |
0%
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Data Deficient |
0%
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Unknown |
0%
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Data provided by IUCN (2023) Red List. More information