Overview

Gray-streaked Flycatcher: Small flycatcher with gray-brown upperparts and dark streaked white underparts. Tail is short and notched; wings are gray-brown with faint white wing bar. Undertail coverts are white. Face shows white eye-ring and distinct brown malar mark; throat is white. Bill is black.

Gray-streaked Flycatcher: This Old World flycatcher makes its rare appearances only on the western Aleutian Islands of Alaska. It may also found on Kamchatka Islands and in Siberia. It frequents coniferous and mixed woodland areas, preferring woodland edges in plains habitats and low hills for nesting.

Voice Text

"speet-teet-teet"

• The Gray-streaked Flycatcher is also known as the Spot-breasted or the Gray-spotted Flycatcher.
• This species was first described by the English naturalist Robert Swinhoe in 1861.
• A group of flycatchers has many collective nouns, including an "outfield", "swatting", "zapper", and "zipper" of flycatchers.

• Bluethroat
• Stonechat
• Dark-sided Flycatcher
• Asian Brown Flycatcher
• Palau Flycatcher
• Chestnut-cheeked Starling

Chats and Old World Flycatchers (Muscicapidae)

ORDER

Most of the small birds such as the thrushes, starlings, and shrikes are members of the one hundred and eighteen families found in the largest taxonomic order of

birds; the PASSERIFORMES (pronounced pas-ser-i-FOR-meez).

FAMILY TAXONOMY

The Old World Flycatchers are placed in the muscicapidae (pronounced mus-kih-

KAP-ih-dee), a group of three hundred and four species in fifty-three genera mostly found in Eurasia, Africa, and Australasia.

NORTH AMERICA

Twelve species of Chats and Old World Flycatchers in eight genera have occurred in North America. Two species, the Bluethroat and Northern Wheatear, breed in the Arctic and migrate to Africa and Asia. The rest are rare migrants, mostly occurring in western Alaska.

KNOWN FOR

Old World Flycatchers are known for their harsh calls and foraging behavior of sallying out from a perch to catch small insects.

PHYSICAL

Members of the muscicapidae are small birds with medium length, flat bills adapted for snapping insects from the air, and picking them off of the ground. They have medium-length wings, tails, and legs.

COLORATION

Members of this family can have dull brown and gray plumage, show striking black and white patterns, or have olive or black plumage with bright patches of yellow, blue, and orange. A few species are mostly yellow.

GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT

Chats and Old World Flycatcher species are found in a wide variety of habitats, including tropical forest, temperate forest, second growth, and open rocky areas. The species that have occurred in North America use edge and open habitats.

MIGRATION

Most of the Chats and Old World Flycatchers that breed in temperate zones migrate to tropical regions for the winter. The many members of this family that breed in tropical latitudes are permanent residents. All of the species that occur in North America are long distance migrants.

HABITS

Few members of the muscicapidae form monospecific flocks. Most occur in pairs, and individuals of various Chats and Old World Flycatchers join foraging flocks composed of other bird species.

CONSERVATION

The species of muscicapidae that have occurred in North America are fairly common in appropriate habitat in their normal breeding and wintering ranges. Most members of this family are likewise common although deforestation has caused several species with limited ranges in China, Indonesia, and the Philippines to become endangered.

INTERESTING FACTS

Taxonomic studies utilizing DNA have shown that the wheatears, rock thrushes, and chats are not thrushes but members of the muscicapidae. Populations of the Northern Wheatear that breed in Greenland winter in Africa instead of southern North America. Most members of this family have bristles around the base of the bill to help them catch insects. The familiar European Robin is a member of this family.

Author

Artist

Yury Lisyak