Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS

THE SONG BIRDS

THE FLYCATCHERS

(Family Muscicapidcz)
The Flycatchers constitute a very large group of small, exclusively Old World birds, which should not be confounded with the so-called American Flycatchers {Tyrannida), although their habits are somewhat similar, since the latter are not even oscinine birds at all. Altogether the Flycatchers do not form a very sharply circumscribed group, which is perhaps hardly to be wondered at in one so large and varied, and it is possible to trace their affinities in several directions. Thus in the mottled plumage of the nestling they show an approach to the Thrushes (Turdidcz), yet from these they are distinguished by the weak tarsi and feet, which quite incapacitate them for walking on the ground. Certain of the genera also evince a likeness to the Babbling Thrushes (Timeliida), others to the Wood-Shrikes (Prionopidce), and more particularly to the Warblers (Sylviidce), it being often a matter of difficulty, as Dr. Sharpe has pointed out, to decide just where certain outlying genera should be placed. In a broad sense, however, according to Mr. Oates, the”Flycatchers may be known by the mottled plumage of the nestling, and by the presence of numerous hairs stretching from the forehead over the nostrils, and not unfrequently nearly to the base of the bill. They are not to be confounded with the rictal bristles, which are stiff and strong and lie laterally, nor are they to be confounded with the lengthened shafts of the frontal feathers, which in some of the Thrushes resemble hairs."
Typically the Flycatchers have a broad, flat bill, though in some it is extremely broad, and in others relatively long and slender or even diminutive; in all, however, both edges of the mandibles are smooth, the upper one with a simple terminal notch. The ten-primaried wing is variable, being usually long and pointed, but sometimes shorter and rounded. The tail is also variable, being sometimes comparatively short, but ordinarily it is relatively long, often graduated, and not unfrequently has the central pair of feathers enormously lengthened; the number of rectrices is always twelve. While it is difficult to describe the plumage in brief, comprehensive terms, in general it may be said that the prevailing hues are browns, chestnuts, olive-greens, blues of various shades, varied with black, white, and yellow. The sexes may be similar, but perhaps oftener are quite unlike; ornamental head crests are of frequent occurrence.

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