The Taiga Flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla) is a small passerine that breeds across the taiga forest from the Urals in eastern Russia to the Yakutia, inland Chukotka, south through Koryakia and Kamchatka; south to extreme northeastern Kazakhstan, northern Mongolia and Amurland (Brazil 2009, del Hoyo et al. 2020). Birds breed in mixed deciduous forest and in spruce (Picea) forest, preferring those with much undergrowth and with tall trees; requires sites with clear areas and glades, and favours areas near water (Cramp 1993, del Hoyo et al. 2020). 

 

The entire northern population migrates from the north through to east Asia to spend the winter (del Hoyo et al. 2020). The migration routes and non-breeding quarters are poorly known, but three main autumn routes may be used: from northwestern Siberia via the Urals and Afghanistan to India; from central Siberia through Mongolia and west-central China to Myanmar and beyond; and from the eastern part of the range through northeastern and eastern China to southeastern Asia (del Hoyo et al. 2020). Majority probably migrate through China, with a western route [where overlap with Red-breasted Flycatcher (Ficedula parva) occurs] used by fewer birds (del Hoyo et al. 2020). Passage in central and eastern Russia from early August to late October, and reaches western China, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand from September–October, and Hong Kong from early October to mid November, passage through eastern China between mid September and late October. Return migration in spring mainly in April, with some birds not occurring until May (e.g. second week of April to the third week of May around Shanghai), with marked passage through northern China and Mongolia continuing to early June (Carey et al. 2001, del Hoyo et al. 2020). Vagrants recorded in Japan, Korea, western Philippines (Palawan), Borneo, Andaman Island (Kennedy et al. 2000, Brazil 2009, Howell et al. 2004, Hamilton et al. 2007, Lamont 2015, del Hoyo et al. 2020). Vagrants have reached as far west Europe in Britain (Lewington et al. 1992, Harrison 2013, Harrison 2014).

 

In North America the Taiga Flycatcher is only regular in Alaska where it is a casual spring migrant on Western Aleutian Islands, accidental on St. Paul Island and at Gambell (West 2008), with the only fall record for Alaska is from Gambell on September 19, 2005 (NAM 59: 131). The species is accidental in California with a photographed record at Putah Creek on the border of Solo and Yolo Counties on October 25, 2006 (Hamilton et al. 2007)

 

Taiga Flycatchers are a winter visitor to South and South-east Asia in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Vietnam, and Japan (Deignan 1945, Wildash 1968, Inskipp and Inskipp 1991, Ali and Ripley 1996, Wells 2007, Brazil 2009, Cramp 1993, del Hoyo et al. 2020). Its natural habitat is taiga forest (Cramp 1993, del Hoyo et al. 2020). In wintering areas this species occurs in forests, woodlands, plantations, and visits gardens; in Myanmar, often found in stands of Dipterocarpus tuberculatus with grassy undergrowth and in drier, more open oak forest (del Hoyo et al. 2020). 

The Taiga Flycatcher is covered in most North American field guides. This is a small species measuring 11-12 cm in length, weighing 8–14 grams, with a wingspan of 20.1 cm (Brazil 2009, Howell et al. 2014, Dunn and Alderfer 2011). 

 

This species is very similar to the Red-breasted Flycatcher (Ficedula parva) which is found breeding Central Eastern and southeastern Europe (from central Finland, southeastern Sweden, northern Germany, Austria, Croatia and northern Greece) east to the  Urals, northwestern Kazakhstan, northern Turkey, Caucasus and northern Iran; with a winter range found mainly from Pakistan and northern, western and central India, locally in southeastern Arabia (Taylor et al. 2020). 

 

The following description and comparison is taken from del Hoyo et al. (2020).

 

The Taiga Flycatcher is somewhat larger to the Red-breasted Flycatcher. Male breeding has head and upperparts browner and uppertail-coverts blacker than Red-breasted Flycatcher, and lores, malar region and ear-coverts greyer; red patch below restricted to chin and centre of throat and uppermost breast, and completely and broadly bordered by grey, underparts off-white with hint of peach-coloured suffusion; iris brown; maxilla blackish horn, mandible with yellowish tinge, variably dark towards tip; legs dark brown. 

 

Non-breeding male has red on chin and throat greatly reduced, and flanks more buffish. 

 

Female lacks red throat, has white throat patch and greyish-buff underparts.

 

Juvenile and first-year much as those of F. parva, but first-winter can be separated from same age of latter species by black uppertail-coverts contrasting with browner rump, sometimes a less black tail (uppertail-coverts dark brown, paler than blackish tail in Red-breasted Flycatcher, its mainly dark mandible (latter mainly pinkish in Red-breasted Flycatcher, greyish collar on breast  (absent on Red-breasted Flycatcher), more patterned face with contrasting pale grey lores and supercilium (plain face with obvious pale eye-ring in Red-breasted Flycatcher and dark legs.

 

There is no regularly occurring bird species in British Columbia that looks similar to the Taiga Flycatcher.

 

The Taiga Flycatcher was just recently added to the avifauna of British Columbia (Toochin and Cecile 2025). An immature bird was found and photographed by Ethan Moon, and subsequently many other observers, at and near Sunset Beach in Vancouver from December 25, 2025-February 21, 2026 (E. Moon Pers. Comm.). This bird occurred in a year that many Siberian vagrants turned up likely due to a Typhoon remnant that hit Alaska in the fall of 2025 (M. Meredith Pers. Comm.). This species has an extensive migration and is likely to occur somewhere in the province again. 

 

I wish to thank Don Cecile tracking down information on the Taiga Flycatcher and Ethan Moon for letting us know about extra information on the record. Also wish to thank Meteorologist Mitch Meredith for information on the fall typhoon remnant that hit Alaska in 2025. Also want to thank Ethan Moon and Raymond Ng for allowing us to use their photographs of the Taiga Flycatcher. All photographs are used in here with the permission of the photographer and are protected by copyright law. Photographs are not to be reproduced, published or retransmitted on any website without the authorization of the photographer.

  

Brazil, M. 2009. The Birds of Japan. Christopher Helm, London, UK.

 

Ali, S., and S. D. Ripley. 1996. Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan: Together with those of Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Volume 6. 2nd edition. Oxford University Press, Delhi, India.

 

Carey, G. J., M. L. Chalmers, D. A. Diskin, P. R. Kennerley, P. J. Leader, M. R. Leven, R. W. Lewthwaite, D. S. Melville, M. Turnbull, and L. Young. 2001. The Avifauna of Hong Kong. Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, Hong Kong.

 

Cramp, S., Editor. 1993. The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume 7. Flycatchers to Shrikes. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

 

Deignan, H. G. 1945. The birds of Northern Thailand. US National Museum Bulletin 186:1–616. [Online Resource] Retrieved from  https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/32628#page/5/mode/1up

 

del Hoyo, J., N. Collar, G. M. Kirwan, and D. A. Christie. 2020. Taiga Flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. [Online Resource] Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.taifly1.01

 

Dementiev, G. P., N. A. Gladkov, K. N. Blagosklonov, R. N. Meklenburtsev, E. S. Ptushenko, A. K. Rustamov, B. K. Shtegman, E. P. Spangenberg, A. M. Sudilovskaya, and I. B. Volchanetskii. 1968. Birds of the Soviet Union. Volume 6. Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem, Israel.

 

Dunn, J. L. and J. Alderfer. 2011. National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America. National Geographic Society, Washington D.C.

 

Hamilton, R. A., M. A. Patten, and R.A. Erickson. 2007. Rare Birds of California: A work of the California rare bird record committee. Western Field Ornithologists, Camarillo, California.

 

Harrison, I. 2013. From the Rarities Committees. Sandgrouse 35(2):161–164.  

 

Harrison, I. 2014. From the rarities committees. Sandgrouse. 36(2): 110–116.

 

Howell, S. N. G., Lewington, I. and Russell, W. 2014. Rare Birds of North America. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey & Oxford.

 

Inskipp, C., and T. Inskipp. 1991. A Guide to the Birds of Nepal. Second edition. Christopher Helm, London, UK.

 

Kennedy, R. S., P. C. Gonzales, E. C. Dickinson, H. C. Miranda, and T. H. Fisher. 2000. A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

 

Lamont, A. R. 2015. A study of the avifauna of the Vankee development, Minhang district, Shanghai, China: June 2005 to May 2014 – Part 2: passerines. BirdingASIA 23:34–46.

 

Lewington, I., P. Alstrom, and P. Colston. 1992. A Field Guide to the Rare Birds of Britain and 

Europe. Jersey: Domino Books Ltd., Jersey, UK.

 

Taylor, B., G. M. Kirwan, and D. A. Christie. 2020. Red-breasted Flycatcher (Ficedula parva), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. [Online Resource] Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.rebfly.01

 

Toochin, R. and D. Cecile. 2025.British Columbia Rare Bird List: Casual and Accidental RecordsDecember 1, 2025: 10th Revised Edition. [Online Resource] Retrieved from https://bcrarebirdrecords.ca/pages/bc-rare-bird-list [Accessed: December 21, 2025].

Wells, D. R. 2007. The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Volume 2. Christopher Helm, London.

 

West, G. C. 2008. A Birder’s Guide to Alaska. American Birding Association, Colorado Springs, CO.

Wildash, P. 1968. Birds of South Vietnam. Charles E. Tuttle Co. Publishers, Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo.