Sunday, 17 February 2013

FLYCATCHER 20/25 - Tickell's Blue Flycatcher

 Tickell's Blue flycatcher

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family Muscicapidae. This is an insectivorous species and resident of Malaysia a close cousin of the Mangrove Blue Flycatcher of the wet lands.

The Tickell's Blue Flycatcher breeds in low montane dry forest particularly bamboo dark fringes. It nests in a hole in a tree or amongst rocks and lays 3-5 eggs


The Tickell's Blue Flycatcher is 14cm long. It is an upright long-tailed flycatcher. The male is a beautiful bird which has bright blue upperparts, a orangish throat and breast, and the rest of the underparts white.

Females are duller in blue, and the rufous paler in intensity and extent. Juvenile birds have scaly brown upperparts, head and breast, with just the wings and tail being blue. They have sometimes been to feed even after dusk. Apart from flying insects they have been noted to occasionally glean crawling insects.

Like other flycatcher they can be call out by mimicking their call. Thanks to Madi and gang for the outing.

Flycatchers in blue is very difficult to id especially the female and it takes location and its male counterpart to be around to really nail their subspecies.

Here is the female Tickell's Blue caught in the opening for a few seconds window................





No comments:

Post a Comment