Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
THE SONG BIRDS
THE FLYCATCHERS
Flycatchers Habitats
The Flycatchers, as implied by their name, are almost strictly insectivorous birds, catching most of their prey on the wing, though also seeking it to some extent among the branches and leaves of the trees or the backs of cattle or occasionally hovering like a small Hawk. They are tame, mostly solitary birds, sitting quietly on some vantage point from which they sally forth to capture an insect, often with an audible snap of the bill, and to which they return again and again. Some of them frequent the dense forests, but the majority prefer open woodland, orchards, and gardens, where they are seen singly or in pairs. They are rather weak though graceful on the wing, flying in an undulating or zigzag though often dashing manner, and are wholly without reputation as songsters, their ordinary notes being weak and so persistently reiterated as to earn the deserving term of”monotonous"; their call notes are harsh. In the matter of nidification their habits are as various as might be supposed, some placing the nest in holes of trees or banks, while others build beautiful cup-shaped, arched, or domed structures in trees and at various heights from the ground.
This vast family — comprising nearly one hundred genera and over seven hundred species—is abundantly represented in the Ethiopian, Indian, Malayan, and Australian regions, with several species extending as far east as the Hawaiian Islands and a dozen into the Palsarctic region, of which number three or four reach the British Islands. Some of them are resident where found, but the majority are migratory to a greater or less extent, some making journeys of great length, as that of the Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa grisola), which reaches as far north as Lapland in summer and South Africa in winter. As many of the forms are very closely related and show correspondingly little difference in habits and characteristics, it is obvious that it will be neither expedient nor desirable to go extensively into their description; a few of the more marked or noteworthy forms selected here and there may serve, in addition to the general description already given, as a satisfactory exposition of this group.
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