[5] This species practices polygyny, usually bigamy, with the male travelling large distances to acquire a second mate.

[7] The European pied flycatcher has a very large range and population size and so it is of least concern according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

[9] To this point, the European pied flycatcher still lacked a proper valid binominal name.

The species was finally named as Motacilla hypoleuca by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764.

However, he described this species anonymously in the appendix of a sales catalogue of the collection of Adriaan Vroeg, popularly known simply as the "Adumbratiunculae" among ornithologists.

Thus, the correct form of the scientific name of the European pied flycatcher is Ficedula hypoleuca ([Pallas], 1764).

[5] The European pied flycatcher has a very large range and population size, and is thus deemed to be of least concern by the IUCN.

This species occupies areas of many different countries in Europe and northern Africa, also being present in the west Asian portion of Russia.

[4][9] The European pied flycatcher is a terrestrial bird,[1] typically inhabiting open forests, woodlands, and towns.

[4] The European pied flycatcher predominately practices a mixed mating system of monogamy and polygyny.

Even when they succeed at acquiring a second mate, the males typically return to the first female to exclusively provide for her and her offspring.

The males that have better success at polygyny are typically larger, older and more experienced at arriving earlier to the mating sites.

These primary females gain greater reproductive success because they are able to secure full-time help from the male once he returns from his search for a second mate.

Another behaviour that is relatively frequent in European pied flycatchers is the practice of extra-pair copulations (EPC).

Thus, the male practising EPC will have a group of offspring raised successfully without any parental investment on his part.

[18] In an experiment conducted from 1948 to 1964 in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, two hundred and fifty nest boxes were carefully recorded for their locations and then analyzed for their inhabitance.

The study found little evidence to suggest a difference in breeding dispersal between years or between monogamous and polygynous males.

The same long-term study also found that older European pied flycatchers, both male and female, were more likely to move shorter distances between breeding seasons than younger birds were.

When mates were observed to re-establish their pair bond, they tended to occupy certain areas that were near the nest site established in the previous breeding season.

There are three main hypotheses that seek to explain why females settle polygynously when it lowers their overall fitness and reproductive success compared to a monogamous relationship.

These phenotypic traits contribute to lesser success in mate acquisition, rejecting the "sexy son" hypothesis.

[16] However, another experiment with European pied flycatchers in Norway produced results that refute the deception hypothesis.

According to the deception hypothesis, already-mated males display polyterritorial behavior that increases their chances of acquiring another mate.

Unmated males were shown to display mating behavior, consisting mostly of singing, at their nest site.

On the other hand, already-mated males would need to disrupt their singing at their secondary territories in order to return to their primary nest.

[30] The two species diverged less than two million years ago, which is considered recent on the time scale of evolution.

The latter group could only partially compensate for the absence of a male, leading to secondary females and widows raising fewer offspring than the monogamous pairs did.

One study analyzed the stomach contents of birds during the breeding season and found that ants, bees, wasps and beetles made up the main diet.

[44] Food given to nestlings include spiders, butterflies, moths, flies, mosquitoes, ants, bees, wasps, and beetles.

Grazing needs to be managed to maintain this open character, but also allow the occasional replacement trees.