Alternative name: Dusky Blue Flycatcher
- Muscicapa boehmi
Identification
13-14 cm.
- Whitish lores and side of head, creamy narrow eyering
- Warm brown finely streaked black middle of forehead, crown, nape, hindneck, ear-coverts and neck side
- Brown cheek, becoming white in moustachial area, narrow black malar stripe
- Warm brown mantle, scapulars and back, sometimes rufescent, sparsely streaked blackish
- Light rufous-brown or grey brown rump and uppertail-coverts
- Brown primaries with buff edges, dark brown secondaries with rufous-brown edges, dark brown tertials and upperwing-coverts with broad rufous-buff fringes
- Darkish brown tail feathers with buff fringes
- White chin and throat with a few small black triangles
- White breast heavily spotted with black triangles, buffy flanks with diffuse brown streaks
- White belly to undertail-coverts with buff wash
- White axillaries and underwing-coverts, mottled buff-brown
Sexes similar.
Similar species
The warm brown upperparts and the boldly marked white underparts distinguish this species from other flycatchers.
Distribution
Africa:
Western Africa: Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola
Eastern Africa: south-western Tanzania, Zambia, northern Mozambique, Malawi
Common in parts of its range, however the destruction and degradation of miombo woodland is certainly a threat to the species.
Taxonomy
This is a monotypic species[1].
Placed in genus Bradornis by Clements.
Habitat
Miombo woodland, typically in lower strata.
Behaviour
Diet
Feeds on insects.
Forages singly, in pairs or family parties. Like other flycatchers, perches upright on a branch and makes aerial flycatching sallies. Less active than other flycatchers.
Breeding
Breeding recorded in September in DR Congo, from September to November in Zambia and in October in Malawi. Presumably a monogamous species. Breeds in old weaver nests (like nests of Olive-headed Weaver, Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Weaver and Red-headed Weaver. Usually lays 4 eggs.
Movements
A resident species.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2016. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2016, with updates to August 2016. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2016. IOC World Bird Names (version 6.3). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved July 2016)
- BF Member observations
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Böhm's Flycatcher. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 13 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/B%C3%B6hm%27s_Flycatcher
