She lands silently on a lightly leafy branch. In her beak: a large lump—something soft, with legs. The high-pitched calls are intense. Seconds later, she flies on to the nesting box on a Pine tree (Pinus sylvestris). Out again. In again. Always with food in her beak. The female Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) is in assembly line mode. Her young seem to demand of her in time: And she delivers in time. If you look closely, you’ll see: This is no coincidence. This is precise, targeted care.
The Common Redstart is a typical member of the flycatcher family (Muscicapidae) and is one of the migratory birds that visit Central Europe to breed in spring. The females are more inconspicuously colored than the males—olive-brown, with a rusty-red tail. Especially during the nestling phase, they take on the majority of the care. During this time, their behavior is clearly focused: searching for food, bringing it, and feeding it – and doing so at high frequency.
The Common Redstart is a predominantly insectivorous bird. The nestlings’ diet consists almost exclusively of animal food: caterpillars, spiders, beetles, flies, and occasionally ants or aphids. The female exhibits selective hunting behavior. They prefer soft, protein-rich prey that is easy to swallow. They deliver it in astonishing quantities and in rapid succession. Hard chitin shells or large prey are either crushed or sorted out.
Various hunting techniques are used. The most commonly observed form is so-called “perch hunting”: the bird perches in an elevated position and flies short distances to catch prey on the ground or in the air. During periods of high foraging activity – such as during nestling feeding – females exhibit significantly expanded foraging behavior, often with several attempts per minute.
The female’s foraging flights are short, efficient, and tactically well-organized. They prefer structurally rich habitats such as orchards, forest edges, and hedgerows with a high insect density. The routes between the food source and the nest are optimized to conserve energy and minimize the gap in food supply for the young. At first, I was uncertain about the calls. At first, I thought they were a predator prowling beneath the nest. As the calls continued, however, I realized they were more likely contact calls with the male, who was also nearby and consistently providing food—albeit not as frequently as the female seemed to. It was not uncommon to observe that intense calling would be followed by an approach to the nest box, which would then be aborted. Or the stay in the nest box would be short-lived, apparently because the partner was with the young.
During the intensive feeding phase, a female flies to the nest up to 300 times a day—an enormous achievement for a bird weighing only about 15 grams. This demonstrates not only physical endurance, but also an astonishing degree of coordination and adaptability.
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