Kashmir flycatcher

Last updated

Kashmir flycatcher
Bhargav Dwaraki Kashmiri Flycatcher.jpg
Male, wintering in Ooty
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Muscicapidae
Genus: Ficedula
Species:
F. subrubra
Binomial name
Ficedula subrubra

The Kashmir flycatcher (Ficedula subrubra) is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It breeds in the Northwest Himalayas and winters in southern India and Sri Lanka. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the red-breasted flycatcher, Ficedula parva, which is its closest living relative. Males are distinctive in having a blackish border to the reddish throat while the females can easily be confused with those of F. parva.

Description

The Kashmir flycatcher is 13 cm long, an insectivorous species closely related to the red-breasted flycatcher [2] and sharing the habits of flicking its tail up while perching. The male has a grey-brown back with an orange-red throat, breast and flanks, bordered with black on the throat and breast. Females and first-winter birds have slightly browner upperparts, and the red of the underparts may be reduced to just a pinkish wash. The females have the tail darker than the back with white on the lower basal half of the outer feathers. [3] The male of the similar taiga flycatcher, Ficedula albicilla, has the reddish-orange area limited to the throat and the top of the breast, and lacks the black border.

It breeds in the north-west Himalayas in the Kashmir region of the Indian Subcontinent. It is migratory and winters in the hills of central Sri Lanka, the Nilgiris, [4] and the Western Ghats of India.

Kashmir flycatcher in Ooty Bhargav Dwaraki KASHMIRI FLYCATCHER2.jpg
Kashmir flycatcher in Ooty

The Kashmir flycatcher breeds in forests at 1800–2400 m in the Himalayas, often in mixed broad leaved forest with Perrottetia and Corylus . It nests in May and June in a hole in a tree under a metre above the ground. The nest is lined with moss, bark and hair. The eggs, 3-5 of which are laid are pale green and speckled in reddish brown, more densely at the broad end. They are incubated by the female.

Most individuals leave the breeding grounds in September, arriving in Sri Lanka in October and departing again in late March. One of the best places to see this rare species is Victoria Park in Nuwara Eliya.

The song is a short melodic sweet-eet sweet-eet-did-he, and the calls include a sharp chak and a harsh rattling trrr accompanied by wing flicking and tail movement. [3]

This is a vulnerable species with a decreasing population and breeding range, which is also severely fragmented as a result of the destruction of temperate mixed deciduous forests by commercial timber extraction, agriculture and livestock grazing. The population is thought to be between 2,500 and 10,000 birds.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siberian rubythroat</span> Species of bird

The Siberian rubythroat is a small passerine bird first described by Peter Simon Pallas in 1776. It was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family, Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher of the family Muscicapidae. The Siberian rubythroat and similar small European species are often called chats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red-breasted flycatcher</span> Species of bird

The red-breasted flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family. It breeds in eastern Europe and across Central Asia and is migratory, wintering in south Asia. It is a regular passage migrant in western Europe, whereas the collared flycatcher which breeds further east is rare. This is because of the different migration direction. The Asian species Ficedula albicilla, previously considered a subspecies of the red-breasted flycatcher, has the red throat surrounded by grey and a different song. It is usually now separated as the taiga flycatcher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taiga flycatcher</span> Species of bird

The taiga flycatcher or red-throated flycatcher is a migratory bird in the family Muscicapidae. The species was first described by Peter Simon Pallas in 1811. The female has brown upper parts with a blackish tail flanked by white. The breast is buffish with underparts mostly white. The male has ear coverts and sides of the neck blue-tinged grey with breeding males having orange-red coloration on the throats. Unlike the taiga flycatcher, the female of the similar red-breasted flycatcher has a brown tail while the red colour in breeding males extends to the breast in the red-breasted flycatcher. It breeds in northern Eurasia from eastern Russia to Siberia and Mongolia. It is a winter visitor to South and South-east Asia in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Vietnam, and Japan. Its natural habitat is taiga forest. It is a rare vagrant to western Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Purple sunbird</span> Species of bird

The purple sunbird is a small bird in the sunbird family found mainly in South and Southeast Asia but extending west into parts of the Arabian peninsula. Like other sunbirds they feed mainly on nectar, although they will also take insects, especially when feeding young. They have a fast and direct flight and can take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird but often perch at the base of flowers. The males can appear all black in harsh sunlight but the purple iridescence is visible on closer observation or under good light conditions. Females are olive above and yellowish below.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asian brown flycatcher</span> Species of bird of the genus Muscicapidae

The Asian brown flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family Muscicapidae. The word Muscicapa comes from the Latin musca, a fly and capere, to catch. The specific dauurica refers to Dauria, an area of south-eastern Siberia named after a local nomadic tribe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dull-blue flycatcher</span> Species of bird

The dull-blue flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. It was previously included in the genus Muscicapa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tickell's blue flycatcher</span> Species of bird

Tickell's blue flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family. This is an insectivorous species which breeds in tropical Asia, from the Indian Subcontinent eastwards to Bangladesh and western Myanmar. The Indochinese blue flycatcher was formerly considered conspecific. They are blue on the upperparts and the throat and breast are rufous. They are found in dense scrub to forest habitats. The name commemorates the wife of the British ornithologist Samuel Tickell who collected in India and Burma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian blue robin</span> Species of bird

The Indian blue robin is a small bird found in the Indian Subcontinent. Formerly considered a thrush, it is now considered one of the Old World flycatchers in the family Muscicapidae. It was earlier also called the Indian blue chat. It is migratory, breeding in the forests along the Himalayas of Nepal, India, Myanmar and Bangladesh. They winter in the hill forests of the Western Ghats of India and in Sri Lanka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian paradise flycatcher</span> Species of bird

The Indian paradise flycatcher is a medium-sized passerine bird native to Asia, where it is widely distributed. As the global population is considered stable, it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2004. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and Myanmar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semicollared flycatcher</span> Species of bird

The semicollared flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family, one of the four species of Western Palearctic black-and-white flycatchers. It breeds in montane forests of the southeastern corner of Europe to Northwest Iran. It is migratory, wintering in Central and Eastern Africa. It is a rare vagrant in western Europe. Tracking studies using geolocators have revealed that weather conditions during spring migration can have a large impact on the timing of Semicollared flycatcher migration and survival of adult birds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ultramarine flycatcher</span> Species of bird

The ultramarine flycatcher or the white-browed blue flycatcher is a small arboreal Old World flycatcher in the Ficedula genus that breeds in the foothills of the Himalayas and winters in southern India.

<i>Luscinia</i> Genus of birds

Luscinia is a genus of smallish passerine birds, containing the nightingales and relatives. Formerly classed as members of the thrush family Turdidae, they are now considered to be Old World flycatchers (Muscicapidae) of the chat subfamily (Saxicolinae). The chats are a lineage of Old World flycatchers that has evolved convergently to thrushes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Himalayan cuckoo</span> Species of bird

Cuculus saturatus, better well known as the Himalayan cuckoo or Oriental cuckoo, is a brooding parasitic bird that is part of the Cuculidae family. The species breeds from the Himalayas eastward to southern China and Taiwan. It migrates to southeast Asia and the Greater Sunda Islands for the winter.

<i>Ficedula</i> Genus of birds

The Ficedula flycatchers are a genus of Old World flycatchers. The genus is the largest in the family, containing around thirty species. They have sometimes been included in the genus Muscicapa. The genus is found in Europe, Asia and Africa. Several species are highly migratory, whereas other species are sedentary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown-breasted flycatcher</span> Species of bird

The brown-breasted flycatcher or Layard's flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family Muscicapidae. The species breeds in north eastern India, central and Southern China and northern Burma and Thailand, and migrates to southern India and Sri Lanka. It forages for insects below the forest canopy, often close to the forest floor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yellow-rumped flycatcher</span> Species of bird

The yellow-rumped flycatcher, also known as Korean flycatcher or tricolor flycatcher, is a species of flycatcher found in eastern Asia. A distinctive species with almost no look-alike other than the narcissus flycatcher. It breeds in eastern Asia including parts of Mongolia, Transbaikal, southern China, Korea and western Japan. They winter in parts of the Malay Peninsula and South Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-and-orange flycatcher</span> Species of bird

The black-and-orange flycatcher or black-and-rufous flycatcher is a species of flycatcher endemic to the central and southern Western Ghats, the Nilgiris and Palni hill ranges in southern India. It is unique among the Ficedula flycatchers in having rufous coloration on its back and prior to molecular studies was suggested to be related to the chats and thrushes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dark-sided flycatcher</span> Species of bird

The dark-sided flycatcher is a small passerine bird belonging to the genus Muscicapa in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It has a wide breeding distribution in the East Palearctic with northern birds migrating south for the winter. It is also known as the Siberian flycatcher or sooty flycatcher, the latter name is also used for the sooty flycatcher of Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mugimaki flycatcher</span> Species of bird

The mugimaki flycatcher is a small passerine bird of eastern Asia belonging to the genus Ficedula in the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. The name "mugimaki" comes from Japanese and means "wheat-sower". The bird is also known as the robin flycatcher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-backed forktail</span> Species of bird

The black-backed forktail, occasionally referred to as the black-throated forktail, is a forktail species in the family Muscicapidae. The species was described in 1836, from a specimen collected in Nepal. It is a medium-sized forktail, weighing between 25 and 29 grams, with a length of 20.5 to 23 centimetres. The species has a broad white stripe across its forehead. The crown, face, and mantle are black, while the bird's underparts are white, sharply divided from the black above. The wings are largely black with a broad white stripe across the greater coverts. The tail of the species, similar to that of other forktails, is long, graduated, and deeply forked. The tail is black with a white tip and three white bands created by shorter tail feathers. The beak of the bird is black, while the feet and legs are light pink, and the iris is brown. The species is monomorphic.

References

  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Ficedula subrubra". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T22709346A94203872. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22709346A94203872.en . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. Moyle, Robert G.; Hosner, Peter A.; Jones, Andrew W.; Outlaw, Diana C. (2015). "Phylogeny and biogeography of Ficedula flycatchers (Aves: Muscicapidae): Novel results from fresh source material". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 82: 87–94. Bibcode:2015MolPE..82...87M. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2014.09.029. PMID   25307119.
  3. 1 2 Ali, Salim; Ripley, S. Dillon (1996). Handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan. Volume 7 (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 156–158.
  4. Zarri, A. A.; Rahmani, A. R. (2004). "Wintering records, ecology and behaviour of Kashmir Flycatcher Ficedula subrubra (Hartert & Steinbacher)". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 101 (2): 261–268.