Blue-throated Flycatcher

Small flycatcher with an orange chest and a white belly. Male is bright blue above, while the female is brown above with a rufous tail. Himalayan males have an entirely blue throat, while birds in Southeast Asia have a narrow orange stripe down the throat’s center. Confusingly similar to many other Blue Flycatchers, but extensively blue throat and limited orange underparts serve to identify the male. Female can be trickier; look out for relatively well-defined orange breast, rufous tail, and weak eyering (but no pale lores). Found in the dense undergrowth of hill forests. Song is a rambling and variable series of whistling, warbling, and chattering notes; also gives typical Cyornis “chak” and rattle calls.

The blue-throated flycatcher is found in much of the Indian Subcontinent, all through the Himalayas, the plains and Western Ghats of India in the cold months, and also extends eastwards into Bangladesh, and to Arakan and the Tenasserim Hills in Myanmar.

flies (Diptera), small cicadas (Cicadoidea) and larvae