Slaty-backed Flycatcher Ficedula erithacus Scientific name definitions

13–13·5 cm; 8·5–11 g. Small to medium-sized slim, upright flycatcher with small bill and longish tail. Male has head, face and upperparts deep slate-blue, except for velvety black lores and cheek and blackish uppertail-coverts; black tail with white bases of outer feathers; deep orange below, becoming paler or whiter on belly and undertail-coverts; iris brown; bill black; legs dark brown. Distinguished from Cyornis flycatchers by lack of glistening blue on upperparts, e.g. from Cyornis banyumas by duller upperparts, white base of tail, shorter bill, longer wing, no supercilium or wingbars. Female is largely olive-brown, with upper lores and eyering buffish, underparts greyish-buff, paler on belly; differs from female F. westermanni in having dull buff (not white) underparts and no clear white wingbar, from female F. sapphira in duller underparts generally lacking orange, from female F. tricolor in colder, greyer upperparts, lack of rufous on tail, more upright stance. Juvenile is as adult female, but with buffish spots on head and upperparts, buffish tips of greater coverts forming wingbar, dark bars or scaling on underparts; first-winter as female (and frequently breeds in this plumage).

C & S China (E Qinghai, SE Gansu and Shaanxi S to SE Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan) and N Myanmar; non-breeding also C & E Himalayas (C Nepal E to Bhutan) and NE India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland), and Myanmar E to N & C Laos.

Breeds in oak-rhododendron (Quercus-Rhododendron) forest, also conifer forests and secondary forest, at 2100–3900 m in Himalayas and 2400–4300 m in S China. In non-breeding season found in dense moist or damp broadleaf forest, shrubberies and bamboo, often at lower altitudes, below 2000 m, e.g. down to 1200 m in NE Indian Subcontinent (S of R Brahmaputra).

Altitudinal migrant in China and Himalayas, descending to lower levels during Oct–Apr. Non-breeding winter visitor in C & S Myanmar, N & W Thailand and N & C Laos; vagrant in Cambodia and Vietnam (5 Hung, L.M., Robbins, M.B. and Deloglée, S. (2014). The first Vietnam records of Slaty-backed Flycatcher Ficedula hodgsonii and Pectoral Sandpiper Calidris melanotos. BirdingASIA. 21: 112–113. Close ).

Diet largely unknown, but includes small invertebrates and small berries. Usually solitary; may gather in flocks in winter. Forages in understorey and lower to middle levels of forest trees, also in forest edges and clearings; frequently pursues insects in sallying flight from fairly high exposed perch; rarely descends to ground.

Song a loud and clear series of short and rather meandering but rapid and descending flute-like whistled notes, “per-ip-it-u-or-per-ip-it-tu”. Calls include a clear and descending “chink” or “chink-it”, the last part softer, and a deep rattling “terrht”.

Season mid-Apr to Jul. Nest cup-shaped, mainly of green moss, leaves, lichens, plant fibres and animal hair, placed in cleft or hollow between rocks or stones on ground on steep mossy or fern-covered bank. Clutch 4–5 eggs; incubation by both sexes; no information on duration of incubation and fledging periods.

Not globally threatened. Rare or scarce in C Himalayas, uncommon in NE India; uncommon in China; uncommon or fairly common in Myanmar. Scarce or locally common in non-breeding season in N Thailand and N & C Laos.