Mystery Flycatcher

This bird has been in Abu Dhabi 06.-07.04.2006.

From Jens Eriksen:

"A more detailed description:

Conspicuous black shoulder (seen on at least three of the photos and noticed in the field); black legs; black eye; pale eye ring; no wing bars; pale bill, especially lower mandible; creamy-yellow throat; dark sides to breast; white belly and undertail coverts; black upper tail and coverts; grey rump; white sides to base of tail seen conspicuously in flight. Call a high pitched 'chick' heard often, once heard as a trill or rattle. Behavior like parva and albicilla."

From Steve James:

I have looked at this bird very closely now over three days through a 30x telescope. Some of the features which I think people should be made aware of:

- the head looks slightly bigger & more rounded, almost recalling Brown Flycatcher.

- the bill is very broad at the base, but is also slightly longer than on normal taiga & red breasted Flycatchers. It tapers to a very thin point. The lower mandible is horn coloured, as is the base of the upper, the tip is darker.

- the upperparts are dark brown & fairly uniform. Too dark for Taiga or Red-breasted?

- there is a very slight buff wing bar (only visible on high power) which indicates that this bird is a second year, coming now into adult plumage.

- the large area of cream/off white on the throat is very conspicuous & unusual.

- there is an indistinct greyish wash, dappled with brown splotches across the breast, this is inconsistent with Taiga or Red-breasted.

- the sides of the head have a pronounced greyish cast.

- there are a few wavy lines on the flanks, again this is inconsistent with Taiga & Red-breasted.

- the tail pattern is remarkable, the amount of white is very extensive (too extensive for Taiga or Red-breasted?) & the black is very, very black. When the bird flies, this gives a wheatear-like impression, most unlike Red-breasted or Taiga, where the amount of white is much more restricted. There is no mention of this in the literature.

- the rump is black, like it should be for Taiga. But what is Kashmir Flycatcher's rump colouration? I can't find any mention of this in any literature.

- the call is a sharp 'chack', a bit like a redstart's contact call. I have never heard this call given from Taiga or Red-breasted & I have extensive experience of these two species. This bird also calls chack while in flight, this is unusual, as Taiga & Red-breasted normally call on alighting & while normally perched. Both their calls are nothing like this bird's call.

-according to the literature, a minority of female Kashmir Flycatchers are like this bird, without any rufous colouration below. The problem is this, we can rule out both taiga fly & red breasted on a number of the above features. So what are we looking at?

-according to the literature one of the best ways of telling female Kashmir Flycatcher of this type, (i.e. lacking the rufous underparts) is the dark upperpart colouration, pale bill & the distinctive call.

Any suggestions, please e-mail me: