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Gray-streaked Flycatcher Muscicapa griseisticta Scientific name definitions

Peter Clement
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated October 7, 2017

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Field Identification

12·5–14 cm; 15·1–17·4 g. Small, long-winged grey flycatcher with prominent dark grey streaks on underparts , long primary projection. Crown is grey or brownish-grey (feathers with slightly darker grey centres), narrow white line above base of bill and on upper lores to eye, narrow whitish eyering; face and upperparts , including upperwing-coverts and tail, grey or brownish-grey, tips of greater coverts narrowly white, flight-feathers black, edges of tertials whitish, edges of secondaries brownish; fairly long prominent whitish submoustachial streak, strong dark malar stripe; throat and underparts white, large dark grey streaks from breast to belly and flanks; iris dark; bill and legs blackish. Distinguished from other grey flycatchers by combination of white loral line, heavy dark streaks below, very long wings. Sexes alike. Juvenile is similar to adult, but duller brown above, with whitish-buff streaks on head and larger spots on upperparts, broad whitish tips on median and greater upperwing-coverts, whitish underparts with greyish spots or streaks forming smudged area on breast and flanks; first-winter retains pale tips of greater coverts (forming narrow but distinct wingbar).

Systematics History

Birds of Kamchatka and probably N Kuril Is sometimes separated as race pallens. Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

NE China (N Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Jilin), N Korea, SE Russia (Amurland, Ussuriland, C & S Kamchatka), Sakhalin and Kuril Is; non-breeding Taiwan, Philippines, N Borneo, Sulawesi, E Lesser Sundas (Wetar, Leti), Moluccas and W New Guinea.

Habitat

Breeds mainly in larch (Larix) forest and forest edges; occasionally in lowland dense deciduous forest, plantations and large urban parks. In non-breeding season found in similar habitat, e.g. forest edge and clearings, open woodland, also grassland with trees; to c. 1450 m in New Guinea, to 2000 m in Sulawesi.

Movement

Migratory. Departs from breeding area in Aug to mid-Oct, passage in C Japan Aug to mid-Oct, through Korea to end Sept and through SE China (Fujian and Hong Kong) late Sept to Nov; arrives in wintering area in Taiwan from early Oct and present to May, in Philippines end Sept and present to May or early Jun; present in Sulawesi and Moluccas end Aug to Apr, in New Guinea Oct to late Apr. Return passage from end Mar in SE China (Guangdong), mid-Apr and May in Hong Kong, May in N China and Korea, and May–Jun in Japan; arrival on breeding grounds in Russian Far East late May and early Jun. Vagrant in Singapore and C & S Vietnam (N & C Annam, Cochinchina).

Diet and Foraging

Diet not well known, includes small invertebrates; recorded also as hovering to take berries. Usually solitary, occasionally in pairs; confiding. Forages in the open from tops of trees at forest edges or clearings, often near streams; perches upright. Often makes rapid dashes of up to 20 m to catch insect, frequently returning to same perch; briefly cocks or flicks tail several times on landing.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Song short, fairly quiet twittering phrases incorporating a variety of whistling notes; male starts to sing from perch on dead top of tree or dead branch, frequently at 3–4 m, or in crown of tree, then takes off from perch, continuing to sing in flight; less commonly, starts singing in flight and ends song on perch. Call is a loud and melodious “chipee, tee-tee” or “zeet zeet zeet”, but species generally silent outside breeding season. Alarm call is a soft and plaintive “tsr, tsr”, slightly coarser and lower-pitched than in M. dauurica; birds start to give alarm call as soon as they arrive on breeding grounds, and even appear to incorporate it into the song; curiously, alarm call also given by passage migrants, when they are still giving only a quiet and subdued version of the song.

Breeding

Details from Russian Far East. Season mid-May to late Jul; single-brooded. Apparently monogamous. Solitary, territorial. Nest built by both sexes, a compact cup, normally broader at bottom, made mainly of thallusi of lichens (Evernia mesomorpha, Usnea, Ramalina, Bryopogon), far less often twigs, dry plant stems and other plant matter, often covered with fragments of lichen thalussi taken from surrounding branches, and thus acting as camouflage, typically lined with dry larch needles, and often with sparse “roof” of conifer twigs; placed 1·8–15 m (mean 8 m) above ground in fork of tree or on side branch, close to trunk or up to 1–2 m from it, rarely in clumps of lichen; most commonly in larch (Larix), but also recorded in fir (Abies) and oak (Quercus); old nest of other species also used, e.g. Oriental Turtle-dove (Streptopelia orientalis). Clutch 3–5 eggs; incubation, apparently by female only, begins with last egg, period 13 days; male occasionally feeds female on nest; chicks fed by both parents, during nestling period and for some time after fledging.
Not globally threatened. Uncommon in NE China; rare or scarce in Russia; fairly common in most of non-breeding range, but rare in N & C Borneo. Present in Xianghai National Nature Reserve (China).
Distribution of the Gray-streaked Flycatcher - Range Map
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  • Migration
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Distribution of the Gray-streaked Flycatcher

Recommended Citation

Clement, P. (2020). Gray-streaked Flycatcher (Muscicapa griseisticta), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.gysfly1.01
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