The purple needletail (''Hirundapus celebensis''), or ''hagibas'' in Tagalog, is the largest

swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIF ...

found in the

Old World The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...

. It is native to the

Philippine The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

archipelago and the

Minahasa Peninsula The Minahasa Peninsula, also spelled Minahassa, or the Northern Sulawesi Peninsula is one of the four principal peninsulas on the Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between ...

(Sulawesi). This bird lives in various

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

s and open country. They may found in the lowlands or in hills, from high in elevation. These are huge swifts, measuring on average about long and weighing from , with an average of in one study of 22 unsexed adult birds. The wingspan can range up to , with a wing chord length of .http://www.pprune.org/www.me.gatech.edu/hu/Fluids/HW1.pdf Only the white-naped swift rival this species for size and averages less than this needletail.''CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses, 2nd Edition'' by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (2008), . The overall plumage is mostly uniform blackish, with a whitish loral marking. This species has the large size, white horseshoe-shaped underside-marking, and the subtly-needled tail typical of the needletails. Compared to other needletails, it is extremely dark and is the only one without a pale throat patch. Few detailed descriptions of the life history of the purple needletail are known. It is a gregarious species, probably never leaving a group of at least 20 birds. The large size of these swifts is said to be apparent even from a distance. It is believed to take any kind of large, flying

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

; sometimes even hanging around bee-farms to pick off members of a hive. The breeding habits are unknown, although it is thought that this is a cave-nesting bird. The voice is also unknown. The commonality of this species is not really known. They are thought to be scarce to uncommon through most of their range, but are not endangered and can be numerous in some parts of the

References

* Chantler and Driessens, ''Swifts'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q1260552 purple needletail Birds of the Philippines Birds of Sulawesi purple needletail purple needletail