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Spotted Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

Muscicapa striata

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

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The Spotted Flycatcher is a slim, grey-brown flycatcher of open woods, edges, parks and gardens that breeds across Europe and east to Siberia and winters in southern Africa. It hunts by sallying out from an exposed perch to snatch flying insects, often returning to the same lookout. Once common, it has declined in parts of its range.

Did you know?

  • Unusually, it moults its wing feathers from the outside in.
  • Muscicapa means “fly-catcher” and striata “streaked”.

Voice

Call

About the species

Identification

A small grey-brown flycatcher without bold contrasts; pale below, with narrow dark streaks on the breast, forehead and front of the crown. The wings and tail are fairly long and the legs short and black; a narrow, indistinct pale eye-ring. The sexes are alike, and young birds briefly have a spotted juvenile plumage. Its typical hunting style – sitting on an open perch and making short sallies after passing insects before returning – is a good clue.

Family

Muscicapidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

brown, grey, white

About the habitat

Open or lightly wooded habitats – forest edges, clearings, groves, parks and gardens; it avoids dense, closed forest.

Diet

Mainly flying insects caught in quick sallies from a perch; also invertebrates from the ground and some berries in late summer.

Behaviour

Perches upright on exposed branches, fences or posts and makes short, agile flights to catch insects, flicking its wings and tail. Quiet, with thin, high calls and a subdued, scratchy song. It builds an open nest in a sheltered nook – a branch fork, stump, open-fronted nest box, ledge or wall. It is remarkably good at rejecting foreign eggs.

Sources

Photo: Бусел В.А., CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Muscicapa striata мухоловка сіра.jpg

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC707379, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/707379

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/Spotted_flycatcher

See also