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European Pied Flycatcher

European Pied Flycatcher

Ficedula hypoleuca

Identify the European Pied Flycatcher by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The European Pied Flycatcher is a small black-and-white songbird that breeds widely across Europe and western Siberia and winters in West Africa. Males are black above and white below in spring, while females and young are brownish and more subdued. A cavity nester that readily uses nest boxes, it is one of the most studied songbirds.

Did you know?

  • It competes keenly for nest boxes and may even evict tits.
  • Males may hold two territories at once to attract a second mate.

Voice

Song
Call
Flight call

About the species

Identification

A small flycatcher; the male is black and white, with white underparts, a clear white wing patch and often a small white forehead patch. The female is brownish above and paler below, without the white forehead; both sexes have a sharply defined wing patch. After the July–August moult some males are browner and resemble females. Told from Collared Flycatcher by the lack of a full white collar.

Family

Muscicapidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

black, white, brown

About the habitat

Open deciduous and mixed forest, also open conifer stands and mountain birch woods; common in parks and gardens. The key requirement is a suitable nest hole or box.

Diet

Mainly flying insects and other arthropods – flies, caterpillars, spiders and ants – caught in sallies or picked from leaves, branches and the ground; berries in late summer.

Behaviour

Makes quick foraging flights from a lookout, often returning to the same perch. Males sing a clear, rhythmic song on territory, and pairs defend the nest aggressively. Males are often polygynous, setting up a second territory to attract another female before returning to help feed the first brood.

Sources

Photo: Marton Berntsen, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Svarthvitfluesnapper hann (cropped).JPG

Sound: Klaus-Jürgen Papke, XC949361, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/949361

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC707382, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/707382

Sound: Joost van Bruggen, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ficedula_hypoleuca_-_European_Pied_Flycatcher_XC434597.mp3

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions + Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0; Wikipedia: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_pied_flycatcher

See also