Flycatchers are a delightful component of autumn passerine ‘falls’. Three species – Spotted, Pied and Red-breasted – occur regularly on British coasts, but each also has a much rarer and rather similar counterpart species. Here we’ll look at the identification of our three familiar species and compare them with Asian Brown, Collared and Taiga Flycatchers respectively.
Spotted and Asian Brown Flycatchers
Spotted Flycatcher breeds from western Europe in the west to southern Siberia and Mongolia in the east, the whole population wintering in sub-Saharan Africa.
Although a fast-declining breeding bird in Britain, it can also be found as an autumn migrant from the Continent, particularly on eastern coasts. It is a relatively early autumn migrant, with passage typically peaking in late August and September.
This is a large flycatcher, strikingly lean, long tailed and long winged. Its plumage is a characteristic mousey grey-brown, softly marked with blurry vertical streaking on the breast and at the throat-sides, and with some streaking also in the forehead and crown. First-winter birds show some pale fringing and tipping in the tertials and greater coverts.
Asian Brown Flycatcher breeds across Siberia east to Sakhalin and Japan and winters in South-East Asia. It is an extreme rarity in Britain with only four records to date, all on the east coast – one in July and the others in September and October.
Asian Brown is plain and brown and so Spotted Flycatcher is the main confusion species, but in reality the differences are many. Asian Brown is a very small flycatcher, compact and short tailed. Its head is large looking and its eye also looks big. From below, the bill base is strikingly broad, almost ‘boat shaped’, and, unlike Spotted Flycatcher, extensively orange on the lower mandible.
In terms of plumage, it is a uniform pale brown, unstreaked with almost no distinguishing features, although there is a diffuse brownish wash across the breast and a first-winter bird would show some pale fringing and tipping in the tertials and greater coverts. Most striking perhaps are the pale lores and large, staring eye with a prominent eyering.
Pied and Collared Flycatchers
Pied Flycatcher breeds from Iberia in the west to western Siberia in the east and winters in west Africa. It is a common breeder in parts of western Britain, but on the east coast it is perhaps best known as the quintessential Continental migrant. It is also an early migrant, peaking in August, but still occurring in September.
This is a distinctive and easy-to-identify species. Its autumn plumage is a relatively plain mousey-brown, but the closed wing is dark with white on the tertial and wing covert edges (and often in the primary bases, too); it has a dark tail with prominent white outer feathers. A close view will reveal diffuse washes at the throat sides.
This is a difficult species to miss as it can be both highly active, performing a characteristic single wingflick, and noisy, giving a nervous and quite loud whit whit.
Its sibling species – Collared Flycatcher – breeds through much of central and eastern Europe and parts of western Russia. It is very rare in Britain, with just 46 records to date, almost all of which are in spring. Only three have been found in autumn.
Although spring adult males are striking, in autumn this species pair presents one of the classic and most difficult identification problems. In reality, most will be verging on unidentifiable in the field.
The only useful feature concerns the shape and extent of the white patch at the primary bases: lacking or very restricted in Pied and not approaching the leading edge of the wing, but longer and more ‘club shaped’ in Collared, extending beyond the tips of the primary coverts and almost to the wing edge. Other plumage features are only visible in the hand, and DNA analysis might also be useful. The call might be helpful, however: in Collared this is a soft, highpitched heeep.
Red-breasted and Taiga Flycatchers
Red-breasted Flycatcher breeds in eastern Europe and western Russia and migrates south-east to the Indian subcontinent for winter. In autumn it is a regular though still very scarce migrant in Britain, mainly on the east coast.
This is a truly tiny and often very active flycatcher. It has a distinctive habit of cocking its rather long tail, producing a somewhat Wren-like silhouette.
Its plumage is warm brown above – with no white in the wing – and a warm buff or peachy colour below. The most striking feature is its tail pattern: this is blackish with prominent white panels at the base, very obvious in flight. This species can be noisy too, giving a very distinctive soft, Wren-like rattle: trrrrk.
Its eastern counterpart – Taiga Flycatcher – is very similar; indeed until relatively recently it was regarded as a subspecies of Red-breasted. Taiga Flycatcher breeds across Siberia and winters in South-East
Asia. It is an extreme rarity in Britain, with only three records to date: one in April, one from September into October and one in October.
This species is challenging to identify, but tends to be a colder, greyer colour than Red-breasted, particularly on the underparts, which lack warm, peachy hues.
The tertials differ, too, being more prominently pale f ringed, and the bill averages darker than Redbreasted Flycatcher.
The key feature, however, is the colour of the uppertail coverts: brown or near-black in Redbreasted (never blacker than the central tail feathers), but a deep glossy black (blacker than the central tail feathers) in Taiga. Calls are useful, too. Taiga Flycatcher gives a rattling call like Red-breasted, but this is drier, faster and harsher.