Spotted Flycatcher, Ficedula parva
This was not a bird I expected to see 2000m up Jebil Hafite mountain near Abu Dhabi. The last time I saw one of these birds was in a small copse near man parents house in Suffolk. Its possible that the bird is on passage through the region stopping off at an oasis of green (The Hotel Mercure on the top of the mountain) on its way North from Africa to breeding grounds in Turkey, Iran and further North.
Flycatchers will always find a useful perch to work from which makes them an easy target for a half decent photograph. In the copse back in the UK a pair would nest just inside the entrance path to a wood. Up in the canopy you could see the birds flitting out into a gap in the canopy to take gnats and other small insects.I used to find them from their feint high tinny whistled calls - just on the edge of (my) hearing range.
Jebil Hafite, UAE
21 April 2012
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