Brown-breasted flycatcher

Brown-breasted flycatcher
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Muscicapidae
Genus: Muscicapa
Species: M. muttui
Binomial name
Muscicapa muttui
(Layard, 1854)[2]
Synonyms

Alseonax muttui
Butalis muttui

The brown-breasted flycatcher or Layard's flycatcher (Muscicapa muttui) is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family Muscicapidae. The species breeds in north eastern India, central and Southern China and northern Burma and Thailand, and migrates to southern India and Sri Lanka. It forages for insects below the forest canopy, often close to the forest floor.

Description

The legs are yellowish orange and the lores are pale

The brown-breasted flycatcher is 13–14 cm in length and weighs between 10-14 g. The overall colour of the upperparts is olive brown. Some of the feather shafts are darker. The upper tail coverts are brighter rufous as are the edges of the flight feathers. The tail feathers have rufous on the outer webs. The lores are pale and the eye ring is conspicuous. The chin and throat are white while the breast and sides of the body are pale brown. The middle of the body to the vent is buffy white.[3] Submoustachial stripes are faint but mark the boundary of the pale chin while the legs and lower mandible are pale flesh coloured.[4] The most confusable species is the brown flycatcher but the more extensive rufous and distinctive patterns of this species make it easy to separate.[5] It was named by Layard after Muttu, his servant[6] who brought him the specimen.[2]

Although no ringing evidence exists to prove their migration, it is thought that the winter migrants in southern India and Sri Lanka come from north-east India and northern Thailand. A subspecies stotmani described by Hugo Weigold in 1922 is not usually recognized.[4][7]

The usual call is very faint tseet audible only at close range or a series of notes chi-chi-chi-chi ending with a low chit-chit.[4]

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Muscicapa muttui". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. 1 2 Layard, EL (1854). "Notes on the Ornithology of Ceylon, collected during an eight years' residence in the Island". Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Series 2. 13: 127.
  3. ↑ Oates, Eugene W. (1890). The Fauna of British India. Birds Vol. 2. Taylor and Francis, London. pp. 36–37.
  4. 1 2 3 Rasmussen, PC & JC Anderton (2005). Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide. Volume 2. Smithsonian Institution & Lynx Edicions. p. 375.
  5. ↑ Wait, WE (1922). "The passerine birds of Ceylon". Spolia Zeylanica. 12: 114.
  6. ↑ Gould, John (1883). The birds of Asia. Volume 6.
  7. ↑ Wells, D.R. (1983). "Brown-breasted flycatcher Muscicapa muttui in Thailand". Bulletin of the British ornithologists' club. 103 (4): 113–114.
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