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, 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 included 37 of the 42 Muscicapini species. It confirmed that Muscicapa was non-monophyletic and proposed a reorganised arrangement with several new or resurrected genera.

Extant species

There are 17 extant species of Muscicapa flycatchers:
ImageCommon nameScientific nameDistribution
Grey-streaked flycatcherMuscicapa griseistictaManchuria and Kamchatka; winters in Southeast Asia
Dark-sided flycatcherMuscicapa sibiricaAsia
Ferruginous flycatcherMuscicapa ferrugineaBangladesh, Bhutan, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, India, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Brown-breasted flycatcherMuscicapa muttuinorth eastern India, central and Southern China and northern Burma, Thailand and Vietnam, and migrates to southern India and Sri Lanka.
Ashy-breasted flycatcherMuscicapa randiPhilippines
Sumba brown flycatcherMuscicapa segregataIndonesia
Asian brown flycatcherMuscicapa dauuricaJapan, eastern Siberia, southern India, Sri Lanka east to Indonesia and Vietnam, and the Himalayas
Brown-streaked flycatcherMuscicapa williamsonisouthern Myanmar, southern Thailand, northern peninsular Malaysia, and northeast Borneo
Sulawesi streaked flycatcherMuscicapa sodhiiSulawesi
Yellow-footed flycatcherMuscicapa sethsmithiAfrican tropical rainforest
Little grey flycatcherMuscicapa epulataAfrican tropical rainforest
African dusky flycatcherMuscicapa adustaelevated areas of Sub-Saharan Africa
Spotted flycatcherMuscicapa striataMediterranean and Europe to Central Asia, wintering in sub-Saharan Africa
Mediterranean flycatcherMuscicapa tyrrhenicathe Balearic Islands, Corsica and Sardinia, and is migratory, wintering in Africa
Gambaga flycatcherMuscicapa gambagaeSudan and Arabian Highlands
Cassin's flycatcherMuscicapa cassiniAfrican tropical rainforest
Swamp flycatcherMuscicapa aquaticaSudan and south towards Zambia

Extinct species

There are at least three fossil species which are included in this genus:
  • †Muscicapa leganyii
  • †Muscicapa miklosi
  • †''Muscicapa petenyii''

    Former species

Formerly, some authorities also considered the following species as species within the genus Muscicapa: