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Black Redstart

Black Redstart

Phoenicurus ochruros

Identify the Black Redstart by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Black Redstart is a small, dark chat with a rusty-red tail that breeds from Europe and North Africa to central China. Naturally a bird of cliffs and rocky ground, it has taken readily to towns, harbours and industrial sites, nesting in holes in buildings. Birds from mild regions are resident, while those from the north and east migrate. It constantly shivers its tail.

Did you know?

  • It famously colonised bomb-damaged cities during and after the Second World War.
  • It can hybridise with the Common Redstart.

Voice

Song
Call

About the species

Identification

A greyish, dark bird with a clearly rusty-red tail. Females and young are mouse-grey with a brownish tinge; the adult male is sooty black with grey tones and a white wing panel. Compared with Common Redstart, the Black Redstart is darker overall; Common Redstart is paler and warmer brown, and its male has an orange breast.

Family

Turdidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

black, orange, grey, white

About the habitat

Cliffs, rocky slopes and scree, and in towns harbours, industrial areas, building sites and old buildings that mimic cliffs.

Diet

Mainly insects and spiders, often caught in short flights; also berries and seeds, and on migration flies and tiny crustaceans from tide-wrack.

Behaviour

Active and watchful, it bobs and shivers its tail and feeds by short sallies and picking from the ground. The male sings a scratchy, rattling song from rooftops, sometimes at night in early summer. It nests in cavities in buildings or rocks, laying 4–6 eggs; the female incubates for about 13 days, and the young leave the nest after 12–20 days. Calls include a short “tsip” and a ticking “tak”.

Sources

Photo: Carles Pastor, Public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colirrojotizon.JPG

Sound: Pascal Christe, XC812023, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/812023

Sound: Marie-Lan Taÿ Pamart, XC560015, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/560015

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions + Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0; Wikipedia: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_redstart

See also