Little Flycatcher Muscicapa epulata Scientific name definitions

9·5 cm; 8·8–10·7 g. A tiny flycatcher with grey plumage. Has crown, ear-coverts, neck side and upperparts plain mouse-grey, indistinctly streaked darker on forehead and crown, washed brown on ear-coverts; lores whitish; primaries brownish-black, upperwing-coverts, secondaries and tertials browner, narrowly fringed brownish-grey, edges of inner secondaries and tertials almost whitish; tail brownish-black; chin and throat white, mottled mouse-grey; breast and flanks grey, indistinctly streaked whitish, belly white, mottled mouse-grey at side, undertail-coverts white; axillaries and underwing-coverts white; iris olive-brown; bill brownish-black, yellow base of lower mandible; legs black. Distinguished from from M. sethsmithi by slightly smaller size, paler and less bluish plumage, lack of contrasting white throat, and black legs; from all other grey flycatchers by small size. Sexes alike. Juvenile has grey upperparts densely scalloped black and pale ochre or buff, wings and tail dark greyish-brown, upperwing-coverts and tertials broadly edged pale ochre, underparts white, heavy V-shaped blackish scalloping on throat, breast and flanks; immature like adult but wings browner, russet spots at tips of greater coverts, tertials and uppertail-coverts and undertail-coverts.

E Sierra Leone, SE Guinea, N Liberia (Mt Nimba), S Ivory Coast, S Ghana, S Cameroon, SW Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, NE Gabon, NW & S Congo (Mayombe) and W & NE DRCongo (Luki Forest; Uele and Ituri). Records from C Nigeria (Nindam Forest) doubtful (1 Dowsett, R. J. (2015). Comments on the ornithology of Nigeria, including amendments to the national list. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 135(2):154–173. Close ).

Lowland forest, mainly secondary growth, but in Liberia (Mt Nimba) also small relict stands of primary forest. Occurs typically in old overgrown cultivation where vegetation not too uniform or dense, also in cultivation with trees and shrubs.

None recorded.

Small insects up to 16 mm in size (mostly 5–12 mm), including beetles (Coleoptera), grasshoppers (Orthoptera) moths (Lepidoptera), and swarming winged ants (Formicidae) and termites (Isoptera); also takes small berries. Occurs singly or in pairs; does not usually join mixed-species parties, but may follow them for a short way. Forages at all levels, mostly middle strata, at 10–20 m in medium-sized trees, mostly at edges of forest and secondary growth; active, covering 50–200 m of forest in less than 1 hour. Catches insects in flight from perch on exposed twig or branch; makes circular flights to seize prey passing 5–10 m from perch, usually between or under crowns of trees but often in openings in dense foliage. Also gleans foliage, and flutters among leaves to flush insects, which it then captures on the wing; hovers to snap up prey on or under leaves.

Song a rapid medley of thin, high-pitched notes, some buzzy, interspersed with rattling calls. Contact call high-pitched, descending, squeaky notes; flight call a high-pitched, whistled “tsee-see”.

Laying in Mar–Apr and Jul in Cameroon and Jan–Feb and Oct in Gabon; in breeding condition in Jan in Liberia. Monogamous; territorial. Nest relatively large, a bulky cup of dry moss, dead leaves, small twigs and lichens, loosely built but bound with spider web, lined with thin fibres; placed among dead leaves in webs of colony nest of social spiders, once in old nest of processionary caterpillars suspended 18 m above ground at end of leafy liana. Clutch probably 2 eggs; incubation by female, chicks fed by both parents; no information on duration of incubation and nestling periods; fledglings fed by both parents.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Scarce or uncommon to frequent. Recorded density in NE Gabon 4–6 pairs/km². As this species occupies degraded and secondary vegetation, and old and current cultivation, it is not so vulnerable to forest destruction and degradation as are other flycatcher species.