Chats and old world flycatchers


Magnus Robb,
Lukas Pelikan &
The Sound Approach
NFC, Night flight calls
16th December 2020

Chats and flycatchers Muscicapidae have in common that they are not widely known to possess flight calls at all. All are strictly nocturnally migrants and some at least certainly use NFCs. Only very rarely can they be observed in actual migration flight during daytime. Calls that are very similar to their NFCs may be used during the migration period by resting migrants on the ground in daytime – but usually not in flight (beware of birds using NFCs from the ground in the early hours!). In some species it is noticeable that their NFC is rather similar to their respective juvenile begging call. For a majority of species the NFC, if any exists, is still unknown. As a matter of fact, the group of chats and flycatchers is arguably the most underestimated and mysterious group when it comes to NFCs, with new NFCs identified only recently (eg, Black Redstart Phoenicurus ochruros).