Pied flycatcher

The pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) is a summer visitor to Britain, spending its winters in West Africa. It is a woodland bird that is most often seen to the west of Great Britain, particularly Wales. It also breeds in other parts of Europe, although it is absent from Italy and Ireland.

The pied flycatcher is on the amber list of bird species that are not in immediate danger but whose numbers give some cause for concern.

Appearance

The pied flycatcher is similar in size and shape to a sparrow, but with a longer tail. It measures 12-13 centimetres (5 inches) in length. It is only the male birds to which “pied” applies, being strikingly black and white in their summer plumage. The upperparts are black and the underparts white, with prominent white wing patches and a white spot on the forehead. There is also white on the sides of the tail.

Female pied flycatchers are olive-brown above and whitish below. They share the white markings on the wings and tail of the male birds, but do not have the white forehead mark.

In winter, male pied flycatchers cease to be pied, their plumage becoming almost the same as that of the females, apart for the white forehead patch that they retain throughout the year.

Behaviour

Pied flycatchers flit from tree to tree and often drop to the ground. They will take food from leaves or bark, clinging briefly to the trunk of a tree or hovering.

Breeding

The search for a nest begins in Britain from as early as the beginning of April. The male pied flycatcher chooses the site, often an abandoned woodpecker’s nest. Nesting boxes are also adopted by pied flycatchers. The female lines the nest with moss and animal hairs. A clutch of between five and eight eggs will be laid in late May or early June, incubated by the female alone for up to 15 days. Both parents feed the young, with flying insects caught on the wing, supplemented with caterpillars and spiders.

The young take about 15 days to fledge but continue to be fed by their parents for another two weeks or so. They stay together as a family group until they are ready to leave for Africa in late August or early September. Only one brood will be raised in a season.

The pied flycatcher is on the amber list of bird species that are not in immediate danger but whose numbers give some cause for concern.

© John Welford