Pied Flycatcher

Above: Male
Below: Female with nesting material.

The Pied Flycatcher is a migrant bird visiting predominantly the West side of  mainland UK in the summer. They arrive a little later than some other migrants, in late April or early May and leave again in September. They prefer mature woodland with limited undergrowth and open spaces for hunting insects.

They are fairly small birds, being approximately similar in size to a house sparrow. The male birds are a handsome mixture of black and white. The upper side being mostly black with a broad white wing-bar. the underside is pure white. There are also two small white 'stars' just above the beak. The beak itself and the legs are jet black. The female is more brown than black and the white wing-bars, although present are usually narrower. She also has some buff markings under the chin and on the upper breast. There are a number of similar flycatchers that occur in Europe but these have a white half collar (semi collared flycatcher) or full collar (collared flycatcher) around the neck. These do not normally visit the UK but check carefully, just in case.

They can be found in a number of old woodlands in the North West of England and North Wales. Llangollen in Wales, Padley Gorge and Errwood in Derbyshire, Coombes Valley in Staffordshire to name a few. I have found these birds to be fairly confiding so it should be possible to get reasonably close to get some good shots.

At Coombes Valley you used to get great opportunities from the hide but sadly the hide has been removed. The hide used to overlook a small pool with some tress and shrubs to the left. These trees and shrubs, which were very close to the hide, were always visited by Pied Flycatchers and with a little patience you would get opportunities for very close pictures. Now that the hide is gone it is more difficult to get a good shot. It's still possible with a long lens and some careful, slow approach work. The pied are more confiding that the redstarts, for example, and will practically ignore you after a while.However, lets hope the RSPB replace the hide soon as this will be sorely missed. In late May and early June you may not see many females as they are usually sitting on eggs. So early May and from mid June onwards should give you better chances of spotting them.

As with other black and white birds correct exposure can be difficult. In the case of Pied's this is made worse by the fact that they are often found under the tree canopy, against relatively dark backgrounds. It's easy to get your pictures over exposed as the camera tries to compensate for what it thinks is a dark picture overall.