CreatureData

Taiga flycatcher

Ficedula albicilla (Pallas, 1811)

LCLeast Concernsongbirds

The taiga flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla) is a species in the family Muscicapidae, order Passeriformes. Recorded adults weigh 10.8 g to 11.4 g. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Taiga flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla)
Photo: Lawrence Hylton · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the taiga flycatcher

Weight
10.8 g – 11.4 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Invertivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
woodlandsrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch
5.5src for Young per litter or clutch
Litters or clutches a year
1src for Litters or clutches a year
Lifestyle
Perchingsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Migratorysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the taiga flycatcher live?

Not recorded

What is the taiga flycatcher?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The taiga flycatcher or red-throated flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla) is a migratory bird in the family Muscicapidae. The species was first described by Peter Simon Pallas in 1811. The female has brown upper parts with a blackish tail flanked by white. The breast is buffish with underparts mostly white. The male has ear coverts and sides of the neck blue-tinged grey with breeding males having orange-red coloration on the throats. Unlike the taiga flycatcher, the female of the similar red-breasted flycatcher has a brown tail while the red colour in breeding males extends to the breast in the red-breasted flycatcher. It breeds in northern Eurasia from eastern Russia to Siberia and Mongolia. It is a winter visitor to South and South-east Asia in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Vietnam, and Japan. Its natural habitat is taiga forest. It is a rare vagrant to western Europe.

It was formerly considered a subspecies of the red-breasted flycatcher.

The genus name is from Latin and refers to a small fig-eating bird (ficus, fig) supposed to change into the blackcap in winter. The specific name albicilla is from Latin albus, white, and Neo-Latin cilla tail; this meaning of cilla arose from a misunderstanding of motacilla, the name for the wagtail.

From the Wikipedia article “Taiga flycatcher” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Taiga_flycatcher&oldid=1330201968), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the taiga flycatcher endangered?

The taiga flycatcher is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the taiga flycatcher classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderPasseriformes
  5. familyMuscicapidae
  6. genusFicedula
  7. SpeciesFicedula albicilla (Pallas, 1811)

Synonyms Ficedula parva albicilla, Ficedula parva parva, Muscicapa albicilla, Muscicapa leucura, Synornis joulaimus

Other names and names in other languages (51)
  • Red-throated flycatcherEnglish
  • خاطف الذباب تايجيArabic
  • Таежна мухоловкаBulgarian
  • Papamosques de taigàCatalan
  • lejsek sibiřskýCzech
  • Tajga FluesnapperDanish
  • Rødstrubet FluesnapperDanish
  • Tajga-fluesnapperDanish
  • TaigaschnäpperGerman
  • TaigafliegenschnäpperGerman
  • TaigazwergfliegenschnäpperGerman
  • TaigazwergschnäpperGerman
  • tajga muŝkaptuloEsperanto
  • Papamoscas de la taigaSpanish
  • idänpikkusieppoFinnish
  • Gobemouche de la taïgaFrench
  • Piquemouche de la taïgaFrench
  • Cuilire píbdheargIrish
  • Skybbyltagh coillaraghScottish Gaelic
  • חטפית טאיגהHebrew
  • crvenogrla muharicaCroatian
  • szibériai légykapóHungarian
  • Balia golarossaItalian
  • Balia della taigaItalian
  • Pigliamosche della taigaItalian
  • オジロビタキJapanese
  • Шығыс кіші шыбыншыKazakh
  • 흰꼬리딱새Korean
  • taiginė musinukėLithuanian
  • Sibīrijas mušķērājsLatvian
  • ചെങ്കണ്ഠൻ പാറ്റപിടിയൻMalayalam
  • TaigavliegenvangerDutch
  • taigafluesnapperNorwegian
  • muchołówka rdzawogardłaPolish
  • papa-moscas-da-taigaPortuguese
  • papa-moscas-real-orientalPortuguese
  • Muscar guleratRomanian
  • Восточная мухоловкаRussian
  • Восточная малая мухоловкаRussian
  • TaigalivkkárNorthern Sami
  • muchárik sibírskySlovak
  • Tajgina mala muharicaSerbian
  • tajgaflugsnappareSwedish
  • taigaflugsnappareSwedish
  • นกจับแมลงคอแดงThai
  • Tayga SinekkapanıTurkish
  • мухоловка північнаUkrainian
  • Мухоло́вка північнаUkrainian
  • 紅喉姬鶲Chinese
  • 紅喉鶲Chinese
  • 红喉姬鹟Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the taiga flycatcher

Other species in the same genus Ficedula.

CompareTaiga flycatcher vs Red-breasted flycatcherTaiga flycatcher vs European pied flycatcherTaiga flycatcher vs Collared flycatcherTaiga flycatcher vs Semicollared flycatcher

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the taiga flycatcher?

An adult taiga flycatcher weighs 10.8 g – 11.4 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the taiga flycatcher endangered?

The taiga flycatcher is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the taiga flycatcher?

The taiga flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla) belongs to the family Muscicapidae in the order Passeriformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Taiga flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/taiga-flycatcher

MLA

“Taiga flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/taiga-flycatcher.

BibTeX
@misc{taiga_flycatcher_2026,
  title = {Taiga flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/taiga-flycatcher},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}