Monday, September 7, 2009

Dark-sided FC; SEP 5

The first to arrive this year. This worn adult Dark-sided Flycatcher (Muscicapa sibirica) was perching on a very exposed branch along the way to Doi Angkang yesterday. I'm a bit surprised that I didn't find any juvenile birds which are normally commoner during the beginning of the migration. The bird seemed to like this perch a lot that it didn't flew to any other branches at all. It continuously flew out to catch small insects which were flying all over the place and flew back to this same perch, so I could get some landing shots of it. Looking at the photos, I found the bird's still in its molting period. Its primaries and tail feathers were very worn and few new primaries were growing. May be, if possible, next week I'll go back to Doi Angkang again. I think there should be more Muscicapa flycatchers like this Dark-sided or Ferruginous Flycatcher arriving.

Showing pale buffish covert fringes

The bird's primaries are worn and some are molting.

Subspecies 'rothschildi' has plain dark sooty-brown underparts; no streaks.

1 comment:

Stuart Price said...

Muscicapa flycatchers there too eh?