Strolling through my local reserve I was stopped in my tracks by the rasping call of what I regard as the most beautiful bird of the woods, the satin flycatcher.
It was not just the weather – hot and sultry – that told me we were heading into summer after a savage winter that seemed to linger well into spring. The flycatcher heralds the summer season and is traditionally the last of the migrants to arrive from the mainland, in my experience reaching Tasmania in about the middle of November.
I was excited to hear mine, a male in shimmering breeding plumage, a little earlier than usual, in the Waterworks Reserve on November 4.
Although I didn’t have binoculars with me, there could be no doubt about the bird I located after first hearing its harsh call, and then its sweet repetitive song.
The silhouette in the treetops showed a small, slender bird with a distinctive crest. When it moved into direct sunlight I could see its metallic plumage, the midnight blue on its head and back offset by silver feathers on its breast.
It is not only shape, form and colour that enables the birdwatcher to separate one species from another. Birders also rely on what they call “jizz”, examples of avian behaviour that set the species apart. In the case of the satin flycatcher, it has a habit of flicking its tail when it sings.
The flycatchers are insectivorous and they time their arrival for when insects are in abundance in the canopies of eucalypt forests where they feed and breed.
Coming from the tropics as far north as Papua New Guinea, the flycatcher appears less hardy than the more common grey fantail also seen hawking insects. Although listed as a migratory species like the satin flycatcher, many grey fantails never leave the state.
During some years the satin flycatcher is hard to find at the Waterworks but in recent times it has become a prolific breeder, sometimes forming breeding colonies.
The satin flycatcher is not only the last bird to arrive in spring, but the first to leave at the end of summer. So its breeding cycle is short and frenetic with male flycatchers at first moving rapidly through the treetops to establish territories and then singing rigorously to attract females. Both male and females build a cup-shaped nest of shredded bark and grass, coated with spider webs and decorated with lichen. The nest is placed on a bare, horizontal branch, with overhanging foliage, high above the ground.
They also share in parenting duties. Although it’s a wonderful sight to see the young on the wing in mid-summer, their erratic flight is also a signal that soon these magical birds will leave us, leading the way for other summer migrants to seek warmer climates over Bass Strait.