Birdwatching - 2054 🐦

🦉 The European pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca)

• Ficedula fi cedulinus (medieval lat.): “A small bird that feeds on figs and turns into a black-headed warbler in winter ”(from: Jobling, 2010)
• hypoleuca hypoleucos Greek: hypo below, a little, leukos white, hypoleukos whitish

An interesting feature of these birds is that males can be colored (the so-called morph) differently, or to be more precise, from light to very dark plumage. Males of the lightest morph are barely distinguishable in color from females, while males of the darkest morph have dark brown plumage, almost black.

Another feature of these birds that distinguishes them from others is their ability to eat stink bugs Heteroptera , which other birds do not touch. After all, these birds arrive in the second wave, and at this time the weather is very changeable, and on cold days most insects hide, only Heteroptera bugs remain.