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Slaty-blue Flycatcher Ficedula tricolor Scientific name definitions

Peter Clement
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated January 1, 2006

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Field Identification

12·5–13 cm; 6–10 g. Small to medium-sized, slim, short-billed, long-tailed forest flycatcher. Male nominate race is almost entirely dark blue on head and upperparts, except for paler blue forehead, blackish lores to cheek merging with dark blue of rest of plumage, blackish upperwing with rust-brown tinge on tertials and inner secondaries, and blue-black tail with prominent white sides at base; chin and throat white, side of breast bluish-black, diffuse blue-grey band extending across breast; belly to undertail-coverts greyish-white; iris dark brown; bill and legs black. Female has head and upperparts warm buff-brown, wings darker, rufous edges of tertials, rufous rump and uppertail-coverts, chestnut tail, pale lores and whitish throat, buffish breast, warm brownish-buff flanks; differs from female F. erithacus in warmer brown upperparts, white throat, and longer, rufous tail, also more horizontal stance; from female F. westermanni in colour of upperparts, longer tail, and brownish-buff (not greyish) breast and flanks. Juvenile is similar to female or slightly darker brown, including tail, but upperparts, including wing-coverts, heavily spotted warm buff and streaked pale buff, and underparts barred or scaled darker on breast; first-year more like respective adult, but with thin rufous-buff tips on greater coverts. Race minuta male has slightly darker blue upperparts than nominate, and warm buffish-olive underparts, pinkish base of lower mandible, also pinkish-brown legs, female is deep olive-brown above, tipped rufous on rump and tail, dull rufous upper throat becoming pale buff on lower throat, with side of neck, breast and upper belly dingy brownish-buff; diversa male has dull slate-blue upperparts, buffish-grey chin and throat, female more olive on upperparts and breastband than nominate; cerviniventris male has underparts warm buff with bluish breastband, female has darker warm rufous upperparts contrasting less with rump and tail, also warm buff below.

Systematics History

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Name leucomelanura is a synonym of tricolor, based on a male of present species described simultaneously with a female described as tricolor; name tricolor awarded priority, but when species placed in Muscicapa, name tricolor is preoccupied and must be replaced by leucomelanura (1). Proposed race notata (Kashmir) also synonymous with nominate. Four subspecies recognized.

Subspecies


SUBSPECIES

Ficedula tricolor tricolor Scientific name definitions

Distribution

W and C Himalayas of N Pakistan and Kashmir E to C Nepal and SW Tibet; non-breeding at lower altitudes.


SUBSPECIES

Ficedula tricolor minuta Scientific name definitions

Distribution

Himalayas from C and E Nepal E to NE India (Arunachal Pradesh and W Assam) and SE Tibet; non-breeding at lower altitudes, including Assam Valley and Bangladesh.


SUBSPECIES

Ficedula tricolor cerviniventris Scientific name definitions

Distribution

NE India (Meghalaya, E Nagaland and SE Assam S to Mizoram) and W Myanmar; non-breeding in NE Bangladesh.

SUBSPECIES

Ficedula tricolor diversa Scientific name definitions

Distribution

C China (S Gansu S to Yunnan), W and N Myanmar; non-breeding S China (S Yunnan), E Myanmar, NW Thailand, N Laos and N Vietnam.

Distribution

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Habitat

Breeds in subalpine shrubberies, bush-covered hills (particularly with Viburnum nervosum and Salix denticulata) with bamboo and forest edges in Himalayas; in undergrowth of moist oak-rhododendron (Quercus-Rhododendron) or conifer forests farther E; between 2600 m and 3300 m in N Pakistan and at 1800–3400 m elsewhere in W Himalayas and 2700–4000 m in E, but down to 1500 m in NE Indian hill states. Outside breeding season found in thick bush-covered slopes, ravines, forest undergrowth, also tall grass, reedbeds and sugar-cane fields, at lower levels, 460–1500 in Pakistan, 160–2135 m in Nepal and generally below 1200 m in N India.

Movement

Altitudinal migrant, making post-breeding descent to lower levels. Departs breeding areas from end Jul to end Nov, and return movements mid-Feb to end Apr; passage migrant through S China (Guizhou) and N Vietnam (E Tonkin), and scarce winter visitor in NW Thailand (above 1200 m). Vagrant to NW & NE China.

Diet and Foraging

Food includes small invertebrates, in particular centipedes (Chilopoda), midges (Chironomidae), beetles (Coleoptera). Usually solitary or in pairs. Actively forages and skulks low down in trees, shrubs and undergrowth, also on ground; watches from low perch and pounces on insects on ground. Also makes short aerial pursuit of insects. Almost horizontal stance; droops wings and often flicks tail over back.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Song, from well-concealed low perch (continuously during day, also often at night), 3–4 high-pitched whistles, the first drawn out, the second louder and running into a trill, “chreet-chrr-whit-it”. Also a rolling “trrri trrri trrri…” and a rapid “tic-tic” or “tek-tek-tek” call; alarm a shrill “chreet-tic-tic-tic”, usually accompanied by tail-flicking.

Breeding

Season Apr–Jul. Nest a cup of moss, plant fibres, animal hair, feathers and gossamer, placed in depression on ground in bank, or 2–6 m up in hole in tree trunk, wall or among boulders. Clutch 3–4 eggs; incubation by female, fed at nest by male; no information on duration of incubation and fledging periods.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Common in W & NW Himalayas, local in C & E Nepal, locally common in NE India and Assam; fairly common to uncommon in China, N Myanmar and N Vietnam. In N Pakistan, densities of 3–4 breeding pairs within 100 m of each other.

Distribution of the Slaty-blue Flycatcher - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
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  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Slaty-blue Flycatcher

Recommended Citation

Clement, P. (2020). Slaty-blue Flycatcher (Ficedula tricolor), 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.slbfly2.01
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