About Ficedula albicilla (Pallas, 1811)
Ficedula albicilla, commonly known as the taiga flycatcher or red-throated flycatcher, is a migratory bird species belonging to the Muscicapidae family. This species was first formally described by Peter Simon Pallas in 1811. Females have brown upper parts, a blackish tail edged with white, a buffish breast, and mostly white underparts. Males have blue-tinged grey ear coverts and neck sides, and breeding males develop orange-red coloration on their throats. This species can be distinguished from the similar red-breasted flycatcher in two key ways: female red-breasted flycatchers have brown tails (unlike the blackish tail of female taiga flycatchers), and the red coloration of breeding male red-breasted flycatchers extends to the breast, unlike the red throat-only coloration of breeding male taiga flycatchers. This species breeds in northern Eurasia, ranging from eastern Russia through Siberia to Mongolia. It spends the winter in South and Southeast Asia, where it has been recorded in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Vietnam, and Japan. Its natural breeding habitat is taiga forest. It is a rare vagrant to western Europe, and it was formerly classified as a subspecies of the red-breasted flycatcher. The genus name Ficedula comes from Latin; it refers to a small fig-eating bird linked to the Latin word ficus, meaning fig, that was once thought to change into a blackcap during winter. The specific epithet albicilla is derived from Latin albus (white) and Neo-Latin cilla (tail). The use of cilla to mean tail originated from a misunderstanding of motacilla, the scientific name for wagtails.
