(lat. Ficedula hypoleuca) - songbird flycatcher family (Muscicapidae), distributed in the forests of Europe and on adjacent islands, in the central parts of Western Siberia, as well as in North Africa. It winters in tropical and North Africa and, apparently, in Southwestern Europe.
The coloration of an adult male is black and white, contrasting. The dorsal side of the body and the crown are black, there is a white spot on the forehead, the loin is gray, the tail is brownish-black with a white border around the edges. The ventral side is white. The wing is dark brown, almost black with a large white spot. Females and young males are more dull in color: black tones in plumage are replaced by grayish-brown, white tones are off-white. Chicks are motley, brownish above, whitish below.
The body length of the pied flycatcher is 125-145 mm, this bird weighs 12-16 g. opening the wings and immediately folding them again, while moving the tail up and down). Birds return to nesting places in April - early May, while males are several days earlier than females.
After arrival, the males diligently sing their short and quiet song, quite distinctly pronouncing “chi-kru, chi-kru-chi, chi-kru-ttii”, and when the enemy approaches or in a moment of excitement, they loudly repeat “peak ... peak .. .peak...". Usually the male sings near the old hollow of woodpeckers, protecting it from the encroachments of other male pieds. A few days later, a female joins such a male - the owner of the "apartment", and 2-3 weeks after arrival, the pair proceeds to build a nest. Birds nest in forests of various types, but are especially willing to settle in lighted areas with overmature hollow trees; often found in settlements, if the latter contain at least individual trees.
The nest is arranged in natural hollows, old woodpecker hollows, in the cracks of trees, under the roofs of wooden buildings; willingly engaged artificial nests a wide variety of types. Above the nest device, the birds fuss from 3 to 10 days. The nest is a heap of dry blades of grass, birch bark (if the nest is in a birch forest) or films of pine bark (if the nest is in a pine forest), it also contains moss, hair, and bast fibers in a small amount. The tray is lined with dry leaves and stems of cereals and other herbaceous plants.
2-3 days after the nest is built, the female begins to lay eggs. There are 4-10 of them, more often 5-7, they are blue. In the southern parts of the range at the end of June there is a second clutch. Only the female incubates the eggs for 11-14 days, while the male guards the nest and sometimes feeds her. After hatching, the chicks stay in the nest for 13-18 days. At this time, both parents feed them, making together up to 400-500 arrivals with food to the nest per day. After the chicks leave the nest, adult birds, feeding the young for another 5-7 days, gradually take them away from the nest.
At the end of June, in the forests of the middle belt, one can observe how family flocks, usually consisting of 5-6 young and 2 old birds, begin to roam, and by the end of July, the broods leave the places where they hatched, and in their place are migratory individuals of the same species from more northern breeding areas. The flight ends in September. The food of the pied flycatcher is very diverse. Most often, these are Hymenoptera (mainly sawfly larvae), Diptera (mainly flies), Coleoptera (almost 50% of which are often predatory ladybird larvae), Lepidoptera (exclusively caterpillars), as well as spiders and homoptera (various small leafhoppers).
The pied flycatcher does not fully justify its name: more than 2/3 of its prey are not flies, but sedentary insects collected from the branches and leaves of trees and shrubs and in the grass cover. Pied flycatchers are promiscuous in their choice of food. In the coniferous forest, birds mainly consume harmful beetles, herbivorous hymenoptera and some other harmful insects, which make up a significant part of the entomofauna of this biotope, and, therefore, are beneficial. In deciduous plantations, along with harmful insects, pied flycatchers destroy many predatory insects useful for the forest - larvae of ladybugs, snipes, pied beetles and other predatory Diptera; therefore they cannot be considered useful here.

Kingdom:	Animals
Type:	chordates
Class:	Birds
Subclass:	New palate
Detachment:	passeriformes
Suborder:	song passerines
Family:	Flycatcher
Subfamily:	true flycatchers
Genus:	Pied flycatchers
View:	Pied flycatcher

May 16, 2010. Very near Moscow region. Warmly. The morning began as always: “take out the trash”, “dig up something” ... well, I think: I need to be puzzled by something useful for the stomach, it wasn’t chickpeas: a knock on the window. A neighbor came and said he caught a crazy nightingale. I grab a soap dish and run out into the street: tell me what, how?

Neighbor's story: “I'm repairing a car - I don't touch anyone, on the second floor there is a light knock on the attic window. I think the butterfly is healthy. I climb in - a bird, almost a sparrow, is slowly knocking on the glass (from the inside). In light twilight I put my hand, and a small bird sits on my hand. She flew into an abandoned birdhouse yesterday. Somewhere like that.
Well, I think it's cool! Let's appreciate it. I go out, take a couple of shots, let go. Only then do doubts begin to torment: What did the adult nightingale, and even black and white, forget in the garage? What is this “light fighter” doing in the birdhouse for the second day? Fortunately, not far from the antenna of a neighboring house, the same bird sits and sings not like a nightingale. Suspicious.
To begin with: there is a list of birds of the Moscow region - we look, remember. Further (as if specially at hand) we quickly listen to the recordings of bird voices. We determine approximately the detachment - passerines (from the side they suggest - this is a bird!). Bga-ga. Google. As a result, we determine: Pied flycatcher.
It is clear why he (the male flycatcher) liked the birdhouse above the compost pit and the garage with a dog and a cat living there. Figured it out! And at the same time, we received a photo as a keepsake, for which we are very grateful to the neighbor and the Pied Flycatcher, who did not show resistance to the birds.

We release the Flycatcher:

Pied flycatcher lays an egg in a birdhouse:

Appearance and behavior. Gracefully folded large-headed bird, slightly smaller than a sparrow, of contrasting coloration. Body length 13–15 cm, weight 11–17 g, wingspan 22–26 cm. Sitting on a branch, it usually slightly raises its tail and shakes it. Tail with a slightly pronounced fork.

Description. The adult male is white below, black or brownish above, with a rounded white spot on the forehead (sometimes with two spots separated by a narrow vertical bridge). The border between black and white on the cheek and side is sharp. The female is not as contrasting as the male, grayish-brown above, with darker wings and tail, whitish below, with a brownish tinge on the chest, rarely with blurry streaks. She has no forehead spot. Birds of both sexes are characterized by white fields on the wings, formed by large coverts of secondary primary feathers and borders of tertiary primary feathers. The female has a smaller white field than the male. The outer webs of 1–3 extreme pairs of tail feathers are also white. With a folded wing in a sitting bird, the white field has the shape of a longitudinal “wedge”, with the tip pointing backwards. From a close distance, a narrow white stripe is also visible, formed by the bases of the primary flight feathers, running obliquely down from the “wedge” to the lower edge of the wing (may be absent in females).

Males have developed color morphs, from the darkest, black-and-white, to brown-gray, almost indistinguishable from the female's attire. The size of the forehead spot in males correlates with the color of the upperparts, and is generally larger in the darkest birds. The color morphs of males are not related to age; males of different morphs have differences in behavior. In the nesting plumage, young birds have a scaly pattern all over the body; later, in autumn, they differ from females in ocher bloom. Legs, beak, eyes are dark at any age.

The male pied flycatcher differs from a closely related species - - by the absence of a light spot on the lower back and a white collar, the presence of white borders on the tail feathers and a smaller development of a white field on the primary flight feathers; the female is only the last sign and a darker top. From the male, the male pied is distinguished by a smaller white tone on the sides of the neck, a smaller development of white fields on the tail, black, and not white, middle coverts of secondary flight feathers. The female differs from the gray flycatcher, in addition to landing, in a more “rounded” silhouette, shortened wings, tail, beak, lack of streaks on the chest and cap, and white fields on the wings.

Voice. The short song of the male consists of several sonorous trills of different heights, performed at a "jumping" pace. It is often referred to as " qi-twist-twirl-prue-prue-citi-verti...". The male sings in the crown, now and then flying. Song activity continues until July. Calls, a cry of concern - a sharp " come, come...».

Distribution, status. It breeds practically throughout the entire forest zone of Europe, as well as in Western Siberia, excluding the northern taiga. Obviously, the species spreads to the east; nesting finds have recently been recorded east of the Yenisei. Winters in sub-Saharan Africa. One of the background species of our forests, rare only in the northern taiga, sporadically distributed. Appears on nesting grounds in spring during foliage blooming or a little earlier. Departure begins already in mid-July, ends in September or early October.

Lifestyle. It lives in forests of various types, city parks, gardens with hollow trees or hollow trees. Sometimes nests in hollows and niches of buildings. It keeps mainly in the crowns, but in spring it can forage on the ground and in the ground layer of vegetation. Up to 65% of its prey are sedentary flightless insects, which it collects from the substrate. The method of hunting for flying insects is typical for members of the family - a throw from a perch and a short maneuverable pursuit in the air. Breeds in separate pairs. In spring, males arrive first, occupy nesting sites with hollows and begin to actively sing, attracting females that appear later. Typically, a residential hollow is located at a height of 2–4 m from the ground, occasionally up to 15–20 m. In the nesting chamber, birds build a loose nest from plant materials with a wool tray for 3–10 days, sometimes the nest is very massive.

The clutch contains 6–8 (from 3 to 11) plain greenish-blue eggs. The female incubates the clutch for 12–14 days, the male feeds her. Both parents feed the chicks. The chicks leave the nest 15–18 days after hatching, and become independent after another 2 weeks. One brood per season. The following spring, some of the birds return to last year's nesting sites, and some develop new areas.

Pied Flycatcher ( Ficedula hypoleuca)

Pied flycatcher is one of the few representatives of its family found in Central Europe. This inconspicuous bird smaller than a sparrow tirelessly exterminates harmful insects, bringing considerable benefits to humans.
Habitat. Breeds in Europe, West Asia and North Africa. Winters in sub-Saharan Africa.

Habitat.
Pied flycatcher - typical migrant. It nests in almost all of Europe, with the exception of its southern regions, as well as in Western Siberia and northwestern Africa, and flies to Central Africa for the winter. This small bird settles wherever tall old trees grow: in deciduous and mixed forests, coniferous forests, old gardens, groves among fields, abandoned gardens and cemeteries. In wintering areas, it usually keeps in tropical forests.

Species: Pied flycatcher - Ficedula hypoleuca.
Family: Flycatchers.
Order: Sparrows.
Class: Birds.
Subtype: Vertebrates

Did you know?

• Flycatchers are reliable allies of man in the fight against forest pests and other annoying insects, so in some European countries they are protected by law.
• Some species of flycatchers live in mountainous areas. For example, the orange-throated flycatcher nests in the Himalayas at an altitude of about 4000 m, feeding in thickets near the upper forest line.
• Some flycatchers are threatened with extinction. First of all, we are talking about species inhabiting small areas. So, the jungle flycatcher (Rhinomyias albigularis) lives only on about. Negros (Philippines), where intensive deforestation is carried out. Further destruction of the natural environment can lead to the extinction of this species.
• Many flycatcher species build cup-shaped nests by placing them in trees, bushes, or wall crevices. Some species, which include the gray flycatcher, make two broods per season.

Reproduction.
Pied flycatcher males arrive at nesting sites about a week earlier than females. Very often, one male occupies several sites at once, in which there are hollows or birdhouses. The owner notifies the neighbors about the occupation of the site by ringing singing, and at the same time attracts the attention of females, who immediately after arrival choose their partners. One gentleman may well captivate the hearts of two or even three females. Each of them occupies its own hollow or birdhouse, but the male helps to nurse the chicks of only one of them - as a rule, the first one that appeared on his territory. However, the rest of the females do not remain in debt and show favor to other males, so that often the chicks of the same brood have different fathers. Having finished with the nest device, the female lays 4-7 bluish-green eggs in May and incubates the clutch herself during the entire incubation period, which lasts 12-15 days, and the partner supplies her with food. Both parents feed the chicks, bringing insects and caterpillars to the babies.

Lifestyle.
In nesting areas, the flycatcher hunts within its home range. After feeding the chicks, the birds gather in flocks and fly away to warmer climes, where friendly companies feed and spend the night in the crowns of trees. The flycatcher feeds mainly on flying insects and their larvae, less often on spiders, and prefers to hunt from ambush. Choosing a comfortable perch with good overview, the bird closely surveys the surroundings, and as soon as an insect appears in the field of view, it instantly rushes in pursuit and grabs it on the fly with a strong beak. Thanks to its long and rather narrow wings, the flycatcher flies quickly and maneuverably and even pecks insects and caterpillars from the leaves, hovering in the air in the manner of a hummingbird. Sometimes the bird uses a different hunting tactic: it flies into the crown of a tree, perches on a branch and, often waving its tail, looks out for caterpillars. The intended victim has no chance of escape, since the feathered one has its own "miniradar" - tactile bristles at the base of the beak. From time to time, the pied picker collects insects crawling on the ground.

Pied flycatcher - Ficedula hypoleuca.
Body length: 13 cm.
Wingspan: 21-24 cm.
Number of eggs in clutch: 4-7.
Incubation period: 12-15 days.
Food: flying insects.

Structure.
Tactile bristles. Tactile bristles grow at the base of the beak.
Eyes. The eyes are round, with dark irises.
Beak. The beak is pointed, but wide at the base.
Wings. Long wings help to fly quickly.
Plumage. The head, upper side of the body, wings and tail are black or dark brown. The ventral side, "mirrors" on the wings, forehead and outer tail feathers are white.
Legs. Thin legs are covered with gray scales.
Tail. The tail feathers are short.
Fingers. Three fingers point forward, one backwards; they all end in sharp claws.

related species.
The numerous flycatcher family includes 275 species of small birds, widely distributed in Africa, Asia and Europe. The basis of their diet is made up of insects and arachnids. Species living in the tropical and subtropical climate belt often wear bright plumage. Birds living in the temperate climate zone make seasonal migrations: they nest in the north, and fly to warmer climes for the winter. Flycatchers settle in various types forests often appear in gardens and orchards.

The Pied Flycatcher belongs to the Flycatcher family. There are few representatives of this family in Central Europe. In appearance, this bird is inconspicuous, small. It is smaller in size than a sparrow. Despite this, the bird brings a lot of 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 and round in shape. The beak is pointed at the tip, but the base is wide. Due to the fact that the bird has rather long wings, it is able to fly quickly. The flycatcher has black plumage in the upper part of the body, on the wings and on the head. On the abdomen, partly 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, the tail feathers located on the tail are relatively short. Boats have 4 fingers. Three are forward and one is backward. They grow sharp claws. The body length of this bird is only about 12 cm. The wingspan is 22 cm.

Habitat

This species belongs to typical migratory birds. Their nesting sites are distributed throughout almost all of 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 the northwestern part of 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. The bird prefers to winter in the tropical forest.

reproduction

Males return from wintering grounds a few days earlier than females. One male usually occupies 2-3 sites, where he finds various hollows or birdhouses. I took a fancy to the site, the bird sings loudly to notify its neighbors that the territory is already occupied. Singing also 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 at the same time. Each takes the place found by the male.

When the offspring appears, the male helps to take care of him only one of the females. Most often, this is the first of all who 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 equips the nest, she immediately lays eggs. It takes place in May. The number of eggs ranges from 4 to 7. They are bluish-green in color. Only the female is engaged in incubation. 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 areas, it does not fly far from its site, but hunts nearby. When the chicks grow up and take to the wing, the flycatchers gather in flocks to fly away for the winter. There they stay in flocks, together they look for 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, lying in wait for prey in ambush. She finds comfortable spot where you can safely look for prey. From this perch, all the surroundings should be visible. As soon as the pied flycatcher sees its prey from its hiding place, it immediately takes off and flies after it. She grabs an insect on the fly with her strong and tenacious beak.

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

Sometimes her hunt is different. She sits on a branch in the crown of a tree, and looks out for caterpillars, waving her tail. When the flycatcher has noticed the prey, it will definitely catch it. Sometimes she looks for insects on the ground.

Related species

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

1. Flycatchers bring a lot of benefits to a person. 'Cause 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. The orange-throated flycatcher lives at an altitude of up to 4 thousand meters in the Himalayas. She hunts in the thickets, flying into the upper borders of the forests.
3. Among all the flycatchers, there are species that are threatened with extinction. This applies to those species that occupy a small area. Among them is the jungle flycatcher. This species can only be found on about. Negros. Here the species is threatened with extinction, because on the island the forests 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 you will find such a bird.
4. Many species of the flycatcher family build their nests in the form of a bowl. They place them on a tree or in dense shrubbery. Sometimes the nest can be found in a cracked wall of an abandoned house. Among them there are species that give two offspring in one season.

Video: Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca)

males small pied flycatchers they arrive from the south a week earlier than females: they look for a cozy hollow or a small titmouse and begin to sing near it. The modest song of a black and white male can be expressed in words like this: "three-three-three-twist-twist" or "three-three-three-four-four". The individual rings of this song are rearranged differently by the birds. And so, from dawn to dark, the male solos.

They sing not for entertainment, but for very important reasons.

The first of them is a signal to the female. She perfectly distinguishes between the forest noise and the song of a male of her own species and flies up to him. But there is still a wedding ritual. The bride shows herself to the groom for the shortest possible time and, making sure that she has been noticed, flies away. The reception, of course, is very insidious, but this is the first test for the male. For homeliness. If he suddenly flies after a female, it means that he did not pass the test and the wedding will not happen. According to the rules, the male must return to his titmouse and sing, sing, sing, sitting on the roof or on a branch near the notch. He, as it were, shows by this that his home is dearest to him.

Of course, the female returns and sits on a branch not far away. Now, according to the ritual, the male must show his girlfriend which titmouse he chose, although she herself can see it perfectly. The groom fusses, chirps in a special way, in every possible way shows her how to get into him and how beautiful their house is.

And now she is already inside the titmouse. If he's really good, a couple is formed. This means that the female chooses not a handsome male, not a vociferous singer, but a good apartment.

Once I happened to meet a male pied flycatcher who remained single. He sang near our house, and I heard him every morning. Sang for a week, sang for two. Other pieds already had eggs in their nests, and in some places even chicks, but this one kept singing and clearly did not find a mate. Suddenly I noticed how he sticks his head between the trunks of a double pine. I examined this place in the tree. There was a tiny hollow in which not only a nest, my finger could hardly fit. Probably, females flew here, attracted by his sonorous voice (he was a good singer), but after all, the wedding ceremony includes an inspection of the dwelling, but there was nothing to inspect.

But to the titmouse, on the basis of last year's aspen leaves, a nest was built from blades of grass with pieces of thin, like tissue paper, birch bark or scales from pine branches. There is no place for city pests to get such material, and they replace it by collecting bus, tram tickets or just shreds. newsprint. Six light blue small eggs have already been laid, one a day, and the female is diligently incubating them. And the male still sings, not so much, but still sings. Now why do they need a song?

And now, it turns out, it is necessary to protect the nesting area - ten meters away from the nest. Another male flycatcher will hear the song and fly around this place - since it is busy, you need to look for a free one. Males at this time almost never fight, here the right of the first, the right of the owner, and every newcomer is inferior to him.

Pieds are surprisingly trusting birds. We had such a case at the biostation. The young man examined the titmouses in the forest: who settled in them. In one was a female pied. And you need to find out how many eggs are in the nest. Yunnat tapped lightly on the titmouse. Is sitting. He knocked harder - everything sits. Then he put his hand into the titmouse, took the bird, carefully pulled it out, counted how many eggs were under it, and put the hen back. Close the lid and move on. Of course, we scolded him for such treatment of the bird, but everything turned out well, the chicks hatched, grew up, flew out of the nest.

The first days of small chicks, the female not only feeds, but warms. The chicks are tiny, left alone and cold, they became like dead ones. The female warms them up - again they are alive and pull their heads with huge mouths on thin necks, asking for food. That's all they can do for now. But when they grow up, they become very gluttonous.

There are, however, lazy birds, more often they are males, who only occasionally carry food, placing all the care of the offspring on their girlfriend. But the trouble is when both parents are lazy: the chicks are starving. This is rare, but it happens. We had one such pair at the biological station. The female loved to sit not far from the nest and clean her feathers, the male sang, and the chicks squealed from hunger. Sometimes the male flew up to the female and chased her off the branch so that she would fly after the prey, while he himself sang everything. It’s good that there were only four chicks in the nest, and although they lived from hand to mouth, they still grew up.

The autumn departure of pieds passes completely unnoticed. Already in August it is difficult to meet these birds in the forest, they depart early: they have to make a long journey. In December, our moscow chicks fly to Italy and Spain. Previously, they thought that they hibernated here, but suddenly pieds were found in Central Africa, these were birds, judging by the rings, nesting in Eastern Europe. Apparently, from August to April, pieds are in continuous movement, first to the south, then to the north. It is remarkable that they do not return home in the old ways. Birds near Moscow fly home already through the Balkan Peninsula, thus completing a huge ring around Europe and half of Africa.

Pied flycatcher is the most frequent, most common inhabitant of titmouses in middle lane countries.