SKY SCANNER
The Asian brown flycatcher is a family-minded little critter
Hard to spot, the Asian brown flycatcher is a little bird with a big heart that takes family values seriously.
Almost every Friday during my lunch hour (or 90 minutes) I end up taking my camera and walking to the park near my office. Hardly a five-minute walk and I am at the park indulging in my favourite activity — birding. I have been asked quite frequently about how I spot the birds in the trees, and my reply is very simple: stand in a place, look up at the trees, try listening to the voices up there, and you are bound to spot a bird or at least sense some sort of a movement.
One of the birds which evaded me for quite a while was the Asian brown flycatcher.
The Asian brown flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family of Muscicapidae. It is about 12-14cm long, weighs around 11-12g and, like the name suggests, is brown in colour. It has a relatively large and broad, dark bill, which is conical in shape, and dark brown eyes.
The adult has grey-brown upperparts, which become greyer as the plumage ages, and whitish underparts with brown-tinged flanks. Young birds have scaly brown upperparts, head and breast.
The Asian brown flycatcher has a weak fluttering flight with some slight beats. It usually leaves its perched position on a branch to hunt/snatch an insect in midair and then return to the same or a nearby perch.
This species is a common bird typically found in open woodland and cultivated areas. It nests in a hole in a tree, laying four eggs which are incubated by the female. It can befound in deciduous, conifer and mixed woodlands and open cultivated areas, though prefers deciduous trees for foraging and nesting.
The male sings a simple melodic song during courtship. Four to five olive-grey eggs are laid in a cup-shaped nest made of lichen, moss, and grasses and lined with finer materials. Nests are built by the female and placed on a tree branch or set in a fork of a tree. Incubation ranges from 11 to 13 days and is carried out by the female. Offspring are fed by both sexes. These birds have one brood per year.
This is an insectivorous species which breeds in Japan, eastern Siberia and the Himalayas. It is migratory and winters in tropical southern and southeastern Asia, from southern India and Sri Lanka east to Indonesia. The published pictures were taken in Tao Dan Park in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 3, and in District 2.