Spotted Flycatcher
Muscicapa striata
Woodland. Dark grey-brown above, crown streaked dark; below whitish; breast and flanks indistinctly streaked brown; soft parts black.
LC
Not Endemic
Description
Common summer visitor. Distinguished from [African Dusky Flycatcher] by slimmer, less dumpy shape plus streaked crown and underparts. Sometimes utters a thin, sibilant, two-syllable ‘tzee-chick’ while flicking its wings; also a sibilant ‘tssssssss’. Solitary in any open woodland, mixed bushveld and well-wooded suburbia. Perches on a low branch beneath a tree, from where it hawks insects or catches them on the ground, frequently returning to the same perch and flicking its wings after landing.
Quick Facts
Size
14-15 cm - S
Names
A: Europese Vlieëvanger
Z: usonambuzane
Ss: Kapantsi-Tubatubi
G: Grauschnäpper
Bird Family
Small, insectivorous birds with prominent bristles protruding from the base of their bills. Many of the soberly coloured species catch insects on the ground or in flight after watching from a low perch; others, especially the colourful and ornate species, are leaf-gleaners, but also hawk insects in short aerial sallies.
Distribution
Gallery
Behaviour
Breeding
Habitat
