Ultramarine Flycatcher
Ficedula superciliaris
A tiny deep-blue-and-white flycatcher of the oaks.
Seen atKunja
Opens recordings on xeno-canto, the open bird-sound archive.
What the hills call it
Neela Pidda
/ nee·laa pid·daa /नीला पिद्दा
Ultramarine Flycatcher — A tiny deep-blue-and-white flycatcher of the oaks.
Field notes
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Muscicapidae · Old World flycatchers
- Genus
- Ficedula
- Length
- 11–12 cm
- Weight
- 8–11 g
- At Kunja
- Summer visitor — breeds in the hills through the warm months
- Conservation
- Least Concern
How to know it
A tiny flycatcher; the male is deep ultramarine-blue above and white below with blue breast-sides, the female grey-brown. A gem of the oak forest.
What it eats
Insects, taken in short sallies from a perch among the foliage.
Where & when to spot it
In the leafy oaks and the forest understorey, sallying out for insects and returning to a shaded perch.
Nesting & mating
A moss cup in a tree-hole or stump; three to five eggs in the warm months.
In the lens
Ultramarine Flycatcher, photographed at Kunja
Photographs by Manohar Negi · mnegi.com — tap any photo to view it full
More to spot
PasseridaeHouse Sparrow
Passer domesticus
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MuscicapidaeBlue Whistling Thrush
Myophonus caeruleus
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SturnidaeCommon Myna
Acridotheres tristis
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HirundinidaeRed-rumped Swallow
Cecropis daurica
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PycnonotidaeHimalayan Bulbul
Pycnonotus leucogenys
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MegalaimidaeGreat Barbet
Psilopogon virens
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