After being out of the nest a mere eight days, the young flycatchers' insect capture rate may increase to 70 per cent. Newly-fledged young usually roost together on a branch. In one study a first brood lingered in the vicinity of the nest until the second brood fledged. Individual spotted flycatchers may become bold in defending nests, even pursuing birds as large as jays. One nesting pair regularly subjected lesser spotted woodpeckers rearing young at a nest in the same tree to persistent and vigorous dive-attacks.
Spotted flycatchers are long-distance migrants.
The first departures heading for Africa leave our shores by the end of this month although the majority remain until August. Initially the tiny travellers head south-west through western France and Portugal before crossing the Mediterranean and making for the West Africa and then Zaire. Remarkably, five spotted flycatchers have been recovered in eastern South Africa, four from Finland and one from Wales.