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Bluethroat

Bluethroat

Luscinia svecica

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

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The Bluethroat is a small migratory chat of wet, shrubby habitats across Europe and the wider Palearctic, with a foothold in western Alaska. Males are famous for their gleaming blue throat, often with a central red or white spot, bordered by black and chestnut bands, while females are much plainer. It winters from Iberia and North Africa across southern Asia. The male's song is remarkably varied and full of mimicry.

Did you know?

  • Despite their very different throat patterns, all populations belong to one species.
  • When it flicks its tail, the rufous patches flash like small signal flags.

Voice

Song
Call

About the species

Identification

The male has a blue throat patch; in the northern subspecies it has a rusty-red spot in the centre, in the southern one a white spot. Females' throat patterns vary, usually an arc of black spots on a buffish-white throat; some have some blue. In all plumages a clear white supercilium and large rufous patches at the base of the tail show well, also in flight. Its loud, imitative song supports identification.

Family

Turdidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

brown, blue, red, white, orange

About the habitat

Wet birch and willow scrub, reedbeds, bushy swamps, lake and river margins and shrubby tundra; in winter similar wetlands and scrub.

Diet

Mainly insects, spiders and other small invertebrates, often taken on the ground; berries in late summer and autumn.

Behaviour

Skulking and active near the ground, often cocking and fanning its tail to flash the rufous patches. The male sings a rich, highly imitative song from low bushes or in a short song flight; the call is a hard “tchack”. It nests low in tussocks or dense bushes. After breeding it moults quickly before migrating.

Sources

Photo: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica svecica) male Oppdal.jpg

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC707297, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/707297

Sound: Sharadapte, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bluethroat_male_call_recorded_in_November_2009_at_Sangli.wav

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

See also