Muscicapa


Muscicapa is a genus of passerine birds belonging to the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, and therein to the typical flycatchers of subfamily Muscicapinae. They are widespread across Europe, Africa and Asia with most species occurring in forest and woodland habitats. Several species are migratory, moving south from Europe and northern Asia for the winter.
They are small birds, 9 to 15 centimetres in length. They have a large head, short tail and a flattened bill, broader at the base. Their plumage is mostly drab brown or grey and rather plain. Young birds tend to be more spotted or mottled.
Muscicapa flycatchers typically feed on flying insects which are caught by sallying out from an exposed perch. The nest is usually cup-shaped and built on a tree branch but some African species nest in tree holes.

Taxonomy and systematics

The genus was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the spotted flycatcher as the type species. The word Muscicapa comes from the Latin musca, a fly and capere, to catch.
In 2010 two large molecular phylogenetic studies of species within Muscicapidae showed that Muscicapa was non-monophyletic. The authors were unable to propose a revised genus as not all the species were sampled. A subsequent study published in 2016, that included 37 of the 42 Muscicapini species, confirmed that Muscicapa was non-monophyletic and proposed a reorganised arrangement with several new or resurrected genera.

Extant species

There are 27 extant species of Muscicapa flycatchers:
ImageCommon NameScientific nameDistribution
Spotted flycatcherMuscicapa striataAfrica and south western Asia
Mediterranean flycatcherMuscicapa tyrrhenicathe Balearic Islands, Corsica and Sardinia, and is migratory, wintering in Africa
Gambaga flycatcherMuscicapa gambagaeBurkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, and Yemen.
Grey-streaked flycatcherMuscicapa griseistictanorth-east China, North Korea and south-east Siberia including Sakhalin and Kamchatka. In spring and autumn it migrates through eastern and southern China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. In winter it occurs in forests, forest edges and open country with scattered trees in Borneo, the Philippines, Palau, eastern Indonesia and New Guinea. It is a vagrant to Singapore, Vietnam, Alaska and Australia.
Dark-sided flycatcherMuscicapa sibiricaAsia
Asian brown flycatcherMuscicapa dauuricaJapan, eastern Siberia,southern India, Sri Lanka east to Indonesia and Vietnam, and the Himalayas.
Sulawesi streaked flycatcherMuscicapa sodhiiSulawesi
Brown-streaked flycatcherMuscicapa williamsonisouthern Myanmar, southern Thailand, northern peninsular Malaysia, and northeast Borneo
Ashy-breasted flycatcherMuscicapa randiPhilippines
Sumba brown flycatcherMuscicapa segregataIndonesia.-
Brown-breasted flycatcherMuscicapa muttuinorth eastern India, central and Southern China and northern Burma, Thailand and Vietnam, and migrates to southern India and Sri Lanka.
Ferruginous flycatcherMuscicapa ferrugineaBangladesh, Bhutan, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, India, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Ashy flycatcherMuscicapa caerulescensAngola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Swamp flycatcherMuscicapa aquaticaBenin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia
Cassin's flycatcherMuscicapa cassiniAngola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia.
Olivaceous flycatcherMuscicapa olivascensCameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.
Chapin's flycatcherMuscicapa lenduDemocratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Uganda, and possibly Rwanda
Itombwe flycatcherMuscicapa itombwensisDemocratic Republic of the Congo.
African dusky flycatcherMuscicapa adustaAfrica from Nigeria, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Ethiopia south to South Africa
Little grey flycatcherMuscicapa epulataCameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
Yellow-footed flycatcherMuscicapa sethsmithiCameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, and Uganda.
Dusky-blue flycatcherMuscicapa comitataAngola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo, and Uganda.
Tessmann's flycatcherMuscicapa tessmanniDemocratic Republic of the Congo to Sierra Leone.
Sooty flycatcherMuscicapa infuscataAngola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
Ussher's flycatcherMuscicapa ussheriIvory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.
Böhm's flycatcherMuscicapa boehmiAngola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia

Extinct species

There are at least two fossil species which are included in this genus:
Formerly, some authorities also considered the following species as species within the genus Muscicapa: