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Spotting

Description:

This tiny bird was very very fast and highly active.

1 Species ID Suggestions

Saber
Saber 12 years ago
Taiga Flycatcher
Ficedula albicilla Taiga Flycatcher


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14 Comments

Avinash Hindupur
Avinash Hindupur 12 years ago

Haha, Saber.. black tail would be very black! But still, we cannot be sure. So as Liam said in a detailed way, we shall leave this for now and meantime I will observe these kind of birds more and more. :)
Thanks both of you!

Liam
Liam 12 years ago

One problem I had with the Red-breasted (Taiga) Flycatcher were the retrice feathers. The retrices on Avinash's bird are rounded, where as most Red-breasted Flycatchers have spiked retrices. Also I had thought the retrices were too pale. I also didn't see any sign of a pale nape (not always visible), but I think I can faintly make out one in the added photo. Red-breasted Flycatchers do show white on the retrice coverts (as seen in photo 2), but so do White-tailed Rubythroats (hence the name). You are well within range for both species (Red-breasted Flycatcher being the more populous species). Really, it could be either species.

Saber
Saber 12 years ago

and the tail is black ? ! :))

Avinash Hindupur
Avinash Hindupur 12 years ago

Added another pic (4th in series) which shows only back and tail!

Saber
Saber 12 years ago

ok cool :) !

Avinash Hindupur
Avinash Hindupur 12 years ago

Ahh.. so because of the persistence of three of us, I had to dig deep and what I found is .. I have both the species..! One with black tail and another without!
I will upload the only tail pic and you can see it.

So the chase continues :)

Saber
Saber 12 years ago

i think the tail is black , as u can see the first picture, u see the difference between the white bellied and dark back :) ! in tail

Avinash Hindupur
Avinash Hindupur 12 years ago

Taiga Flycatcher is more closer than the White Tailed! Also, solves the mystery of not observing any males. But.. one last thing Saber.. ;)

The tail is not black in my pics, but in the ID, all tails are black. I shall borrow a cam and post some more pics soon, we can additional have data then.

Saber
Saber 12 years ago

no breeding season , the male , female ,and juvenile, have the same colour ! :)

Liam
Liam 12 years ago

White-tailed was the one I was thinking of.

Avinash Hindupur
Avinash Hindupur 12 years ago

Never thought the posture could help us so much! Thanks Liam. I think I see them even during non winter seasons. So maybe Himalayan Rubythroat (White Tailed Rubythroat)? I am now curious as I never saw any male Rubythroats around here.. wondering if I missed them!?

Liam
Liam 12 years ago

Asian Brown Flycatchers don't tend to assume the posture of the bird in question. I was thinking maybe a female Rubythroat species.

Avinash Hindupur
Avinash Hindupur 12 years ago

Yeah, I was thinking it was Asian Brown Flycatcher, but not sure

Liam
Liam 12 years ago

Looks like a female Old World Flycatcher species: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bir...

Avinash Hindupur
Spotted by
Avinash Hindupur

Guwahati, Meghālaya, India

Spotted on Jan 26, 2012
Submitted on Jan 29, 2012

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