Similar in habits but different in appearance, the Pied Flycatcher is much rarer and more local than the preceding species. Its breeding haunts are chiefly in the west, in Wales, Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland, though it has occasionally bred in other counties. As a migrant, however, it occurs regularly in the south and east, and, though not very numerous, a goodly number pass through the country, entering by the south coast and leaving again in the east from Norfolk northwards. A return migration takes place in August and September.

During these migrations it may, of course, be found in various kinds of country, but its breeding haunts are restricted to well-wooded spots, gardens, orchards, and the outskirts of woods.

The song is more elaborate than that of the Spotted Flycatcher, but it is by no means a great effort, and may be syllabled “tzit tzit tze trui trui trui!” several times repeated. The nest is always placed in some hole, usually in a tree, though exceptionally in the crevice of a wall; it is composed of bents and moss, and lined with feathers and hair. The eggs, sometimes numbering as many as nine, are of a uniform pale blue. Insects form its chief diet, but it is not so exclusive an insect-feeder as the preceding species, nor does it seize so much of its food on the wing, but frequently drops from its perch to pick a spider or other creeping thing from the ground.

In spring the male is black, with a white forehead and white outer margins to the secondaries. The under parts are white. The female has the upper parts olive brown, and those parts which are white in the male, rather buffish in tint. The young bird is spotted, but after the first moult it resembles the female, except that the wing patches in the male are more distinct. The young male assumes his full plumage at his first spring moult. Length 5 in.; wing 3·1 in.