“Saw a pair of Little Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula westermanni westermanni) come to this tree. I only spotted the female feeding on the fruit… This is the best I have seen this lovely birds and would like to make some comments on the female’s plumage:
1. The crown, nape and mantel are generally described as ‘greyish’ or ‘dull grey’ in guides, but note that here (in good light) it is rather ‘blue/purple-grey’ (above left).
2. This initially threw me off and I considered the Ultramarine Flycatcher (F. superciliaris) (not known to winter in our region), but the presence of the partner (unmistakable, posting cm) and clear brown on the upper tail coverts makes the ID sure (above right).
3. Also note the fine bars on the forehead which I have seen in the females but not mentioned in guides.
“Images of the adult male partner of the female (above)… I never realised the white supercilium has ‘raised’ feathers (above right).”
Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
1,600m ASL, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
A public road along primary montane forest
20th December 2011
One Response
nice details, ya, sometimes guides don’t describe the plumage to be too detailed as many features are probably not helpful and not visible in the field most of the time. We also previously noticed that a juvenile Long-tailed Shrike will show such crown pattern of small scaly-wavy patterns only observable by scope (due to distance), from far, it looked much like the standard adult.