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Red-breasted Flycatcher

Red-breasted Flycatcher

Ficedula parva

Identify the Red-breasted Flycatcher by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Red-breasted Flycatcher is a small flycatcher that breeds in eastern Europe and across western Asia and winters in South Asia. Breeding males are brown above and white below with a grey head and an orange-red throat, while females and young lack the orange. It hunts insects in short sallies, often flicking and fanning its black-and-white tail. It closely resembles the Taiga Flycatcher, with which it was once lumped.

Did you know?

  • Males sing only for a short period early in the breeding season and usually fall silent once paired.
  • All plumages show a black tail with white bases to the outer feathers.

Voice

Song
Call

About the species

Identification

A small flycatcher, brown above and pale below with a narrow pale eye-ring. The adult male has an orange-red throat and clearly grey sides to the head and neck; the uppertail coverts are black. Females and first-summer males lack the grey head and red throat (females sometimes have a small reddish patch); the underparts are pale buff. The black tail with white sides at the base is visible in all plumages.

Family

Muscicapidae

Size

Tiny (goldcrest)

Colours

brown, orange, grey, white

About the habitat

Mature deciduous and mixed forest – beech, oak, and spruce further north – with tall trees and fairly open understorey, often near water; on migration also parks and gardens.

Diet

Mainly small flying insects and spiders, taken in sallies and short hovers or gleaned from leaves; in autumn also berries such as elderberries and currants.

Behaviour

A perch-and-sally hunter that often flicks and fans its tail. Strongly territorial when breeding; males sing a high, rapid, descending song from the canopy, mainly early in the breeding season. It nests in natural holes or half-open cavities, and both parents mob intruders.

Sources

Photo: Nppgrandmeadow, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ficedula parva мухоловка мала.jpg

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC949936, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/949936

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC1043703, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/1043703

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

See also