Spotted Flycatcher

The spotted flycatcher is a small, slim, undistinguished-looking passerine of the Old World flycatcher family, about 14.5 cm long and 14–20 g, with long wings and tail. Adults have grey-brown upperparts and whitish underparts with a streaked crown and breast, which give the common name, short black legs and a black, broad but pointed bill typical of aerial insectivores; juveniles are browner and spotted on the upperparts. It is declining in parts of its range (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in most of Europe and the Palearctic to Siberia and is migratory, wintering in Africa and south-western Asia. It hunts from conspicuous perches, making sallies after passing flying insects and often returning to the same perch, with a thin, drawn-out, high-pitched call, tssssseeeeeppppp. Four to six eggs are laid in an open nest in a suitable recess, often against a wall. The cached account does not describe its Indian range. SoIB 2023 lists it as a passage migrant of forest and plantation that eats invertebrates, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).