Red-breasted Flycatcher

Red-breasted Flycatcher   Ficedula parva

Etymology:

• Ficedula : Latin word ficedula –small fig-eating bird
• Parva: Latin word parvus –

 Vernacular names: Hindi: Turra, Pun: Lal hikki tik tiki, Ben: Chatki, Ta: Yeepidippan, Ta, Mal: Pattu kuruvi, Chuvappunencha kuruvi, Te: Yerra eda pitta, Guj: Chatki makhimar, Chataki, Mar: Tambula, Lal Chaticha Mashimar

Distribution in India: Widespread Winter visitor in North, Central and West India.

Description: Size of 11.5-12.5 cm. The male nominate race breeding has forehead, crown and hind neck brown, tinged grey, lores, ear-coverts and neck side ashy grey, narrow eyering off-white; upperparts, including upperwing, brown, flight-feathers and upperwing-coverts narrowly edged paler brown, uppertail-coverts blackish-brown, tipped grey-brown; tail blackish-brown, chin, throat and breast orange-red becoming brighter with age; side of upper breast grey, rest of underparts white, tinged creamy buff on flanks and side of lower breast, thighs pale brownish; axillaries and underwing-coverts creamy buff; iris brown; upper mandible blackish-horn, lower mandible yellowish to deep flesh-pink, variably dark towards tip; legs dark brown. Female has forehead, crown and hind neck brown (with no grey tinge), lores buffish-white, ear-coverts pale brown, narrow eyering buffish, upperparts and upperwing as male, with blackish uppertail-coverts, chin, throat, breast side and flanks creamy buff, rest of underparts white. Often flicks wings, and cocks and flirts tail.

Habitat: It is found during breeding in forest and woodland, mainly mixed deciduous stands, y with beech, oak and spruce. In passage migration they are found also in scrub, often in large trees, but also in taller bushes and thickets in drier areas.

Food Habits: It eats insects and other invertebrates like beetles and spiders, dragonflies , damselflies ,stoneflies, grasshoppers ,earwigs, bugs ,adult and larval lepidopterans, adult and larval flies, ants and wasps, harvestmen, earthworms, woodlice  and snails .It is usually solitary; often skulks in canopy or in bushes .It hunts mainly from middle to lower layers, hopping and creeping among foliage, and sometimes hovering. It makes short, looping sallies to catch prey in the air, with agile flight and rapid wing beats; frequently forages from the ground, including among grass. In damp places, takes aquatic invertebrates, such as larval water beetles. Regularly regurgitates pellets.

Breeding Habits: They breed in mid-May to end Jun in Central & East Europe. They are monogamous and solitary nester. The nest is built by female in 3–5 days . The nest is a cup of moss, dry grass stalks and leaves, root fibers and hair, lined with hair, sometimes lichen woven into outside placed usually above ground in hole in tree or wall, among side shoots of trunk, sometimes on branch close to trunk, or even fork in branches. They lay a clutch of 4–7 eggs, laid at daily intervals. The incubation is done by female only, usually from last egg. The incubation period is 12–15 days. The chicks are brooded by female, fed by both parents. The nestling period is 11–15 days. The young fed for at least 8–10 days after fledging and are independent by 27–29 days of age.