Traveller From Taiga

This small, restless flycatcher is also a great traveller. It nests in the taiga biome — dense subpolar evergreen forests of Siberia and the Russian far east, then crosses a continent to spend the cold months in India — which is why it also goes by the name taiga flycatcher.

Grey-brown above, clean white below, and barely the length of your finger. The name promises a red throat but only the breeding male wears that patch. The birds that reach us in winter, like this one, are plain and pale-throated. Watch one for a moment and you’ll catch its tell: it flicks that dark, white-edged tail sharply upward, again and again, between quick sallies after passing insects.

This one had claimed a bare twig at Sinhagad, darting off and returning to the same perch in the morning light — flicking its tail as if to keep time.