Gould commented 'The Pied Flycatcher, in the strictest sense of the word is migrant, for it passes the summer only in the British Islands. In April and May its arrival may be looked for, and solitary individuals generally seen...during their passage from Africa to the northern parts of the island...Here, within circumscribed limits, it takes up its abode and rears its young, and when autumn terminates, and insect life becomes scarce, wings its way back to the south'.

The male Flycatcher is depicted above with the female and a young bird below.

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds from British Isles and Scandinavia east across Russia to southwest Siberia, south locally to France, Iberia, northern Italy, the Balkans and Ukraine; also in north Africa. Winters in tropical Africa. In Britain range expanded in the 1880s and 1890s, accelerated in the period 1940-1952 and has increased since, certainly helped by the provision of nestboxes