Semicollared flycatcher | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Muscicapidae |
Genus: | Ficedula |
Species: | F. semitorquata |
Binomial name | |
Ficedula semitorquata (Homeyer, 1885) | |
The semicollared flycatcher (Ficedula semitorquata) 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 (Balkan Peninsula) to Northwest Iran. It is migratory, wintering in Central and Eastern Africa. [2] 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. [3]
This is a 12–13.5 cm long bird, intermediate in appearance between collared flycatcher and European pied flycatcher. It has often been classed as a subspecies of collared flycatcher.
The breeding male is mainly black above and white below, with a white half-collar, extending further back than in pied, large white wing patch, extensively white tail sides and a large white forehead patch. It has a pale grey rump. The bill is black and has the broad but pointed shape typical of aerial insectivores. It mainly takes insects in flight, rarely hunting caterpillars amongst the tree foliage like pied flycatcher.
Non-breeding male, females and juvenile semi-collared flycatchers have the black replaced by a pale brown, and may be very difficult to distinguish from other Ficedula flycatchers, particularly the collared flycatcher. A distinction is that semicollared may show a white second wing bar, but many individuals are not separable in the field.
Semicollared flycatchers are birds of belts of deciduous woodlands, especially oak and hornbeam, in mountainous areas. They build an open nest in a native tree-holes and old nests of woodpeckers, also the species can occupy nest-boxes. [4] The clutch size is 4-7 eggs. The song is again intermediate between collared and pied flycatchers, with slow strained whistles, but some rhythmic elements.
The whinchat is a small migratory passerine bird breeding in Europe and western Asia and wintering in central Africa. At one time considered to be in the thrush family, Turdidae, it is now placed in the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. Both sexes have a strong supercilium, brownish upper parts mottled darker, a pale throat and breast, a pale buff to whitish belly, and a blackish tail with white bases to the outer tail feathers, but in the breeding season, the male has an orange-buff throat and breast.
The Siberian stonechat or Asian stonechat is a recently validated species of the Old World flycatcher family (Muscicapidae). Like the other thrush-like flycatchers, it was often placed in the Turdidae in the past. It breeds in the East Palearctic including in easternmost Europe and winters in the Old World tropics.
The common ringed plover or ringed plover is a small plover that breeds across much of northern Eurasia, as well as Greenland. The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in ravines and river valleys. The specific hiaticula is Latin and has a similar meaning to the Greek term, coming from hiatus, "cleft" and -cola, "dweller".
The European pied 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 hybridizes to a limited extent with the collared flycatcher. It breeds in most of Europe and across the Western Palearctic. It is migratory, wintering mainly in tropical Africa. It usually builds its nests in holes on oak trees. This species practices polygyny, usually bigamy, with the male travelling large distances to acquire a second mate. The male will mate with the secondary female and then return to the primary female in order to help with aspects of child rearing, such as feeding.
The collared 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 southeast Europe and Eastern France to the Balkan Peninsula and Ukraine and is migratory, wintering in sub Sahara Africa. It is a rare vagrant in western Europe.
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.
The Atlas pied flycatcher or Atlas flycatcher is a bird in an Old World flycatcher family, one of the four species of Western Palearctic black-and-white flycatchers; it is endemic as a breeding species to North-west Africa.
The Kashmir flycatcher 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.
The half-collared kingfisher is a kingfisher in the subfamily Alcedininae that is found in southern and eastern Africa. It feeds almost exclusively on fish and frequents streams, rivers and larger bodies of water with dense shoreline vegetation.
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.
The narcissus flycatcher is a passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family. It is native to the East Palearctic, from Sakhalin to the north, through Japan across through Korea, mainland China, and Taiwan, wintering in southeast Asia, including the Philippines, Vietnam and Borneo. It is highly migratory, and has been found as a vagrant from Australia in the south to Alaska in the north.
The term Western Palearctic black-and-white flycatchers is used to refer to a group of similar-looking birds in the genus Ficedula:
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.
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.
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.
The pied monarch is a species of bird in the monarch-flycatcher family, Monarchidae. It is endemic to coastal Queensland in Australia.
The pied honeyeater is a species of bird in the family of honeyeaters Meliphagidae and the sole species in the genus Certhionyx. This species is also known as the black and white honeyeater or western pied honeyeater.
The Kamchia Biosphere Reserve, is a former UNESCO-listed biosphere reserve on the northern coastline of Bulgaria, comprising the floodplain at the mouth of the Kamchia River. Consisting largely of alluvial longose groves,, but also featuring some of the Black Sea coastline, the area of the protected habitats in the reserve, together with Kamchia Sands Protected Area, totals 1.200 ha. Established in 1977, it protects the primeval forest from the intensive logging and drainage that had decimated it by mid-20th century. It is situated 25 km south of the town of Varna and is enclosed by the villages of Staro Oriahovo, Shkorpilovtsi and Bliznatsi.