Flycatchers and chats · Perching birds
Bluethroat
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Luscinia svecica
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Voice
Call
Song
Call
How to recognize it
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Slightly smaller than a house sparrow
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In spring and summer, male with a blue throat, often with a red or white spot; black and brick-red bands below
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Brown back, white eyebrow, rusty tail-base patches and black tail corners
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Female with a whitish throat and dark crescent; little or no blue
About the species
A male Bluethroat has a brown back and a vivid blue throat, edged below in black and brick red; the blue may hold a red or white spot. A white stripe above the eye and rusty patches at the base of the dark-tipped tail add two clear flashes of color. Females are browner and paler underneath, with a whitish throat and little blue.
A male sings from a bush top, stringing together whistles, chatter and clicks, and sometimes weaving in imitations of other calls. He may rise in a display flight; the song carries on through the day and is strongest in the morning. Its call is a short “chack.”
It breeds in wet birch woods, marshy scrub and thick growth along rivers and streams, nesting on or close to the ground. Insects and their larvae make up most of its food, with berries taking a larger share in autumn. It migrates south for winter, reaching parts of North Africa and Asia, then returns in late May or early June.
Did you know?
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Mimics by the clock
This mimic tunes its repertoire to the clock: daytime sounds come out by day, nocturnal ones at night — just when the creatures it copies are themselves calling.
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Whistles marmot when marmots wake
On the right bank of the Don, where marmots leave their burrows at dawn and start whistling to each other, the local bluethroats whistle in marmot too — and they do it in the morning, when the marmots are calling at the burrows.
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Named for mimicking other birds
The Russian name varakushka comes from the verb varakushit — to mimic other birds' voices: people named her that for spending whole days running through the songs of other singers.
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Where to find
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In late spring and early summer, listen in the morning for a male singing from a bush top along shrub-lined rivers and streams.
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At a marshy lake shore, among tussocks and low bushes, look for ground-feeding on insects and their larvae.
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In summer, in damp birch woodland or bushy swamps, watch the lower branches and tussocks: adults may visit a low nest to feed their chicks.
