Asian Brown Flycatcher (Muscicapa dauurica)
Order: PASSERIFORMES
Family: MUSCICAPIDAE Flycatchers
Scientific name: Muscicapa dauurica
English name: Asian Brown Flycatcher
Characteristic: Size 13 cm. A tiny insect-eating bird; its dark beak with the base of lower part flash-coloured; pale eyerings ; greyish brown upperpart with a pale wing patch; white underpart; upper breast with a greyish brown patch; legs blackish.
Distribution: Northeast Asia, the Himalayas, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, the Andamans and the Greater Sundas.
Habitat: Open forest, forest edges, orchards and mangrove forest. In Sakaerat area, it lives in the dry dipterocarp forest.
Habit: Seen mostly as a single bird or in pairs, perching on lower branches or dry twigs, keeping its eyes for passing insect preys; once detected it will sally after and catch with its beak in mid-air, then come back to the original perch and showing its typical tail-jerking. Hunting activity is more intense at dawn and at dusk.
the subspecies siamensis a resident to the North, will breed from April to June; a cup-shaped nest is built on twig, in which a clutch of 4 eggs will be later laid. A female is a sole incubator , while a male a food supplier. the incubation period is 11-12 days.
Status: Being both a winter visiter and a resident. Quite uncommon in Sakaerat area. It is legally protected as a protected wild animal.
