46. White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher You’ll normally see a flycatcher ‘hawking’, which is to say, sitting on a prominent perch that gives a good view of the surrounding space, keeping an eye out for small flying or other insects, and then swooping down to pluck them out of the air or from the ground. The White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher is, rather predictably, both white-eyed and a beautiful slaty grey in colour. But flies are not the only things it catches. At this time of year especially, there are plenty of insects of many different kinds that rise from around a pool of water or flutter from flower to flower. Insects are an important food source for many birds. The terrestrial animal biomass on the globe is 2 gigatons; insects make up about half of that. Fish come next, at about 0.7 gigatons, with all the other animals (mammals, birds, molluscs and nematodes) making about 0.3 gigatons. (Humans weigh in at 0.06 gigatons.) Since the total global biomass is something like 550 gigatons, the big winners here must be, by far, the plants. As the White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher knows, insects are a rich source of protein, one which humans will probably need to learn how to access. Birds of AFRICAMA House 96 Birds of AFRICAMA House 97