Pied flycatcher - description, habitat

The pied flycatcher bird belongs to the flycatcher family. In central Europe, there are few representatives of this family. In appearance, this bird is inconspicuous, small. It is smaller in size than a sparrow. Despite this, the bird brings many benefits to people, exterminating harmful insects. In Latin, the name of the species sounds like Ficedula hypoleuca.

Description

The flycatcher near the base of the beak has bristles that perform the function of touch. The eyes are dark, round in shape. At the tip, the beak is pointed, but the base is wide. Due to the fact that the bird has rather long wings, it is able to fly quickly. In the flycatcher in the upper body, on the wings and head, the color of plumage is black. On the abdomen, partially on the wings, tail, and also on the forehead, the plumage is white. The paws of this bird are thin, gray.

In the pied flycatcher, tail feathers located on the tail are relatively short. On boats, 4 fingers. Three are forward, and one is backward. Sharp claws grow on them. The body length of this bird is only about 12 cm. The wingspan is 22 cm.

Habitat

This species is a typical migratory bird. Their nesting sites are common throughout Europe. They do not live only in the south of this part of the world. You can meet a bird in Western Siberia and in northwestern Africa. They live almost everywhere, where there are tall trees. You can see the flycatcher in coniferous, deciduous, mixed forests. Sometimes they settle in gardens and groves, and even in abandoned cities or cemeteries. Prefers to winter the bird in the rainforest.

Breeding

Males return from their wintering places a few days earlier than females. One male usually occupies 2-3 sites, where he finds various hollows or birdhouses. Fell in love with the site, the bird sings loudly to notify its neighbors that the territory is already occupied. Singing attracts females. They choose partners for themselves as soon as they return from hot Africa. One male may well attract the attention of several females simultaneously. Each takes the place found by the male.

When the offspring appears, the male helps only one of the females take care of him. Most often, this is the first of all that flew to the call. In turn, all other females respond to the call of other males as well. Therefore, it often happens that chicks from the same clutch have different fathers. As soon as the female arranges the nest, she immediately lays her eggs. This happens in May. The number of eggs ranges from 4 to 7. In color, they are bluish-green. Only the female is engaged in hatching. This period lasts about 2 weeks. And the male during this period brings food for her. Parents feed the chicks with caterpillars and various small insects.

Lifestyle

When a bird lives in nesting places, it does not fly far from its site, but hunts nearby. When the chicks grow up and become winged, flytraps gather in flocks to fly away for the winter. There they keep in packs, together they seek food for themselves and spend the night in the trees.

The main diet of birds is flying insects. Sometimes it can eat a spider. They hunt most often, waiting for prey in ambush. She finds a convenient place where you can safely look for prey. From this perch all neighborhoods should be looked through.As soon as a pied flycatcher sees prey from its shelter, it immediately breaks down and flies after it. She grabs the insect on the fly with her strong and tenacious beak.

Since the wings of the bird are long and narrow, it can fly quickly and perform various maneuvers. Sometimes it can hang in the air for a short while to peck prey directly from the leaf, as hummingbirds do.

Sometimes her hunt happens differently. She sits on a branch in the crown of a tree, and looks out for the caterpillars, waving her tail. When the flycatcher spotted the victim, she would catch her. Sometimes she seeks out insects on the ground.

Related species

The flycatcher family includes 275 species of birds. All of them are small in size and live on the territory of Eurasia and Africa. Their food consists of various insects and spiders. Some species belonging to the family have a very bright color. This applies to species living in the subtropics and tropics. And those that live in temperate climates are migratory. They nest in the northern territories, and fly away to the warm countries for wintering. They live in forests of any type. In addition, they can be seen in the city, for example, in a vegetable garden or garden.

Interesting Facts

1. Flytraps bring a lot of benefits to humans. After all, they destroy a large number of harmful insects, including those that harm forests. Therefore, this species is protected in some countries.
2. Some species belonging to this family live in the mountains. An orange-necked flycatcher lives at an altitude of up to 4 thousand meters in the Himalayas. She hunts in thickets, flying into the upper borders of forests.
3. Among all the flycatchers there are species that are facing extinction. This applies to those species that occupy a small area. Among them can be noted the jungle flycatcher. This species can only be found on about. Negros. Here the species is threatened with extinction, because forests on the island are cut down with great intensity. If the destruction of nature on this island does not stop, the species will disappear completely. After all, nowhere else in the world can such a bird be seen.
4. Many species of the flycatcher family build their nests in the form of a bowl. They have them on a tree or in dense shrubbery. Sometimes the nest can be found in the cracked wall of an abandoned house. Among them, there are species that produce two offspring in one season.

Video: pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca)