I have been looking for the first of the returning Pied Flycatchers for the past week and finally got lucky this morning. As many of our resident birds have already started nest building I have often wondered how the migrant birds were able to secure their favoured sites and this morning I witnessed something of how this is achieved.
A male Pied Flycatcher was calling repeatedly close to an area where they sometimes breed. The bird was giving a repeated, Wren like 'tec' call not the usual metallic 'pic' and was repeatedly flicking it's wings. I saw it enter a nest hole several times and then after it moved away a Great Tit entered the same hole. As the Great Tit left the hole and moved in to near by trees the Pied Flycatcher swooped down and chased it away. It then sat infant of the nest hole calling and flicking its wings and occasionally giving short bursts of song.
The pair of Great Tits returned and the Pied Flycatcher repeatedly drove them away, given that there were two Great Tits and that on average they are about 20% larger and 20% heavier this is quite surprising. This process was repeated several times with the Pied Flycatcher going in and out of the nest hole but the Great Tits did not manage to re-enter it and I can only assume that they had been evicted.
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| Pied Flycatcher male - upper photos showing threat display |
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