Dark-sided Flycatcher
Dark-sided Flycatcher: Small gray-brown flycatcher with white underparts and gray-brown wash on sides and flanks. Long gray-brown wings have a pale wing bar. White throat with malar mark extends to the sides forming a partial white collar; white eye-ring. Short, dark bill. Dark gray-brown tail.
● Song:
"tsi-tsi-tsi-tsi"
● Foraging & Feeding:
Dark-sided Flycatcher: Feeds mostly on insects. Perches on an open exposed tree branch perch, immobile and erect, until it spots prey; then flies out to catch it in flight and returns to its perch to eat. Sometimes flicks its wings while hunting.
● Breeding & nesting:
Dark-sided Flycatcher: Four to five green eggs with red brown spots are laid in a cup nest made of lichen and lined with larch needles. Nest is built by the female and placed on a tree branch or set in fork of a tree. Incubation ranges from 11 to 13 days and is carried out by the female. Young are fed by both sexes. These birds have one brood per year.
● Similar species:
Sibirean Flycatcher: Very similar to Gray-streaked Flycatcher, which is larger but has a smaller head with white streaks on forehead and heavy brown streaking on white underparts. In the field Dark-sided Flycatcher can also be confused with Asian Brown Flycatcher, which has larger bill with pink base to lower mandible, paler supraloral area, shorter wings, paler upperparts, and unmarked undertail coverts.