| Spotted flycatcher - Muscicapa striata - Family: Muscicapidae
 Spotted flycatcher - Muscicapa striata© Robin Chittenden www.harlequinpictures.co.ukThe spotted flycatcher is a rather nondescript greyish-brown bird with a beady eye, a thin bill and delicate streaking on the crown and breast. Young birds are obviously "spotted" on the breast. This is a regular, if now rather scarce, summer visitor and will take up residence in larger gardens where there are good insect populations. British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) studies show that numbers of spotted flycatchers visiting Britain declined by 85% between 1974 and 2001. It is one of the last migrant birds to arrive, often not reaching England until May. Nevertheless, it sometimes raises two broods of young before leaving for Africa in August. Flying insects including large flies are captured in spectacular aerial pursuits, with rapid twists and turns, as it homes in on its prey. Often, the capture of insects is accompanied by an audible 'snap' as the beak closes. The bird usually returns to the same perch following each sortie. Nests are often built in cover against a house wall, with the ledge above a doorway being a favoured site. Clematis and ivy provide good cover for a nest. The birds quickly adapt to people regularly passing close by. Females forming eggs may take food rich in the calcium required for the shells, such as snails and woodlice. A pair of spotted flycatchers nested regularly in the grounds of the headquarters of the English Nature office in the centre of Peterborough for some years. Obviously these birds knew where they would be appreciated! This represented reward for effort as the grounds began to be managed with wildlife in mind in the late 1980s. FoodMostly small insects caught in flight or taken from tree leaves, but even butterflies and dragonflies may be tackled. Takes bugs, froghoppers, spiders and harvestmen, flies, thrips, beetles and sawflies and some fruit. PlantsClematis, Ivy PreyAzure damselfly, Bees and wasps, Beetles, Blue-tailed damselfly, Bugs, Butterflies, Common darter dragonfly, Dragonflies and damselflies, Flies, Froghoppers and leafhoppers, Mosquitoes and midges, Moths, Sawflies, Small tortoiseshell, Speckled wood, Spiders and harvestmen, St Mark's fly, Woodlice/Millipedes/Centipedes PredatorsSparrowhawk |
