Bird school

• Brambling
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• Bullfinch
• Blackbird
• Barn swallow
• Bohemian waxwing
• Black woodpecker
• Black redstart
• Blackcap
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• Crested tit
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• Garden warbler
• Great tit
• Green woodpecker
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• Long-tailed tit
• Lesser whitethroat
• Lesser spotted woodpecker
• Marsh tit
• Magpie
• Mistle thrush
• Nightingale
• Nuthatch
• Pheasant
• Pied flycatcher
• Redpoll
• Rook
• Redstart
• Robin
• Spotted flycatcher
• Siskin
• Starling
• Song thrush
• Yellowhammer
• Winter wren
• Willow
• Tree sparrow
• Wood pigeon
• White wagtail
• Willow tit
• Whitethroat

The pied flycatcher

Did you know?

The male The female The young bird

The pied flycatcher is mainly found in the west of the UK and not at all in the North of Ireland. The collared flycatcher is instantly recognizable due to its white collar. The male will arrive in UK in the beginning of April, while the females arrive somewhat later.

During the breeding season the biggest concern is finding appropriate nesting spots. As soon as the males have arrived, an intensive searching for hollows begins, around which the territories are established. However, even as the males have marked their territories and mated with a female the hunt isn’t over.
When the female has laid her eggs the male leaves her to establish another territory – a secondary territory. The competition among the males for the females is however, hard, and once the secondary territories have been established the access to females who have not yet mated is extremely limited. Sometimes the males succeed in this endeavour, but once he has mated with the new female in the secondary territory and she has started laying eggs, he will usually leave her to return to the first female.

Appearance
Plumage with contrasting colours of black and white. On the wings it has a wide area of white but otherwise black on its back and head, including the cheeks. Greyish-white underneath. The female is a brown image of the male.

Similar bird
The spotted flycatcher has grey lines across the forehead and no white patch on the wing.

Sounds and song
The call is short and soft which turns harder and more frequent in times of danger, sometimes combined with a clicking. The song is crisp and clear, varied and rhythmic. Short verses are often repeated three times.

Food and bird tables
Its diet consists of mosquitoes, flies, butterfly larvae and spiders.

The nest and hollows
Likes to nest in hollows; it is one of the most frequent guests in nesting boxes. If there is a nesting box in the neighbourhood, the pied flycatcher is bound to be there to see it. It doesn’t matter if the great tit has already started to nest there; it will be sent packing. It is very easy to lure to the garden by mounting nesting boxes for small birds.