Okay they are just wee brown birds but nevertheless Spotted Flycatchers are something special.
These charismatic, elegant & acrobatic wee birds are long-distance African migrants and are usually the last of our summer visitors to arrive.
Sadly something is seriously amiss with these birds as numbers are in free-fall across Europe -possibly as a consequence of wholesale pesticide use & dwindling winter habitat in sub-Saharan Africa. A decade ago a number of pairs bred within a shrt walk from my home, now the nearest breeding pair is about 10 miles away (this despite local forest restoration work)!