alike. Juveniles have ochre-buff spots above and scaly brown spots below. Behaviour and ecology Spotted flycatchers hunt from conspicuous perches, making sallies after passing flying insects, and often returning to the same perch. Their upright posture is characteristic. Most passerines moult their primary flight feathers in sequence beginning near the body and proceeding outwards along the wing. The spotted flycatcher is unusual in replacing the outer flight feathers before those nearer the body. The flycatcher's call is a thin, drawn out soft and high pitched , slightly descending in pitch. Breeding They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for open areas amongst trees. They build an open nest in a suitable recess, often against a wall, and will readily adapt to an open-fronted nest box. 4-6 eggs are laid. Most European birds cannot discriminate between their own eggs and those of other species. The exception to this are the hosts of the common cuckoo, which have had to evolve this skill as a protection against that nest parasite. The spotted flycatcher shows excellent egg recognition, and it is likely that it was once a host of the cuckoo, but became so good at recognising the intruder's eggs that it ceased to be victimised. A contrast to this is the dunnock, which appears to be a recent cuckoo host, since it does not show any egg discrimination. Predation A study conducted at two different locations in southern England found that one third of nests were predated. The Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius) was the most common aerial predator, consuming both eggs and chicks. The domestic cat (Felis catus) predated a small fraction of the nests. Gallery References External links Spotted Flycatcher videos, photos & sounds on the Internet Bird Collection Ageing and sexing (PDF; 1.8 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze Feathers of Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata) Spotted flycatcher - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds. Xeno-canto: audio recordings of the spotted flycatcher spotted flycatcher Birds of Europe Birds of Western Asia Birds of Africa spotted flycatcher spotted flycatcher spotted flycatcher spotted flycatcher