Scientific name: Saxicola torquata (Linnaeus, 1766)
Bird group: Thrushes and allies
Field characters. 12.5 cm. Male with black head and chin, white patch on side of neck, and white wing-patch. Upperparts almost black, with light rump, underparts chestnut, on belly changing into dirty white. In autumn browner and duller. Female and young have streaked brown upperparts, without white on neck or rump. Easy to distinguish from Whinchat by lack of broad supercilium and lack of white on tail. Males of the Siberian Stonechat S. t. maurus (sometimes considered a separate species) have paler underparts, a white rump and a collar that extends further onto the hindneck. Both males and females show a pale throat and supercilium in autumn and resemble Whinchat, but supercilium less clearly demarcated and upperparts more plain, lacking conspicuous markings of Whinchat. Flicks wings and tail, unlike Whinchat. Perches on top sprays of gorse or other bushes, fences, telephone poles, etc. Nests often on the ground between grass, heath, or other vegetation.
Voice. Usual call 'wheet-trek-trek'. Song consists of variable, rapidly repeated double notes, delivered from a prominent perch or in a vertical dancing song-flight.
Distribution. Common and widespread, but locally rare.
Habitat. Frequents open country with scattered bushes or low trees, like heather, moors, wastelands, edges of fields, etc.
Food. Mainly insects, which it hunts from perch, like Whinchat.