Pied Flycatcher photographed at Fort Hommet [HOM] on 18/8/2022 Photo: © Rod Ferbrache (visit site)

Pied Flycatchers have an extensive breeding range extending from North Africa, across Europe to central Siberia. It breeds in moist forests containing suitable nest sites. It is a migrant and moves south-westward in autumn where it fattens in Iberia before moving to its wintering areas in the moist areas of west Africa, most likely from Guinea to Ghana. In the UK numbers have undergone a substantial decline.

Pied Flycatchers have probably always been a common migrant in the Bailiwick, although Smith omits to mention them. Dobson lists a series of records from 1928 onwards and it is likely that this species was under-recorded in this period. Pied Flycatchers have been common breeding birds in Britain over the past century and birds would regularly pass through the islands on their way to and from winter grounds in Africa.

Currently, Pied Flycatchers are a passage migrant and are recorded annually in both spring and autumn. In spring, the first birds are expected to be seen in the first or second week of April but this can vary widely due to adverse weather conditions in spring and the first record may not be until the end of April. Spring passage is fairly short and the vast majority of birds pass through in a period spanning four weeks from the end of the first week in April to the first week in May. In autumn, passage is more protracted, starting in the first week in August and finishing at the end of September. Exceptionally birds are recorded at the end of July and small numbers of birds are regularly recorded in October.

On passage, Pied Flycatchers can turn up almost anywhere. They are concentrated around coastal headlands but, in the period 1993-1998, records were received from approximately fifty localities. Most birds were recorded from Pleinmont but also from marshes such as the Vale Marais and St Sampson's Marais, wet meadows where willows and tamarisks are present, in gardens, along hedges, in areas of farmland with suitable cover and in wooded areas such as Le Vaux de Monel, Saumarez and Cambridge Parks and wooded valleys such as the Fauxquets and Talbot valleys and especially areas of coniferous forest such as Le Guet. Birds are usually recorded singly but do occur in small groups and up to 10 birds occur at any one site.

INCLUDE Sark records