Scientific name: Sylvia communis Latham, 1787
Bird group: Warblers
Field characters. 14 cm. Male with blue-grey head and neck, brown mantle, rufous edges of wing coverts, secondaries and tertials, fairly long brown tail with white outer tail feathers, pinkish wash on breast and flank, and white throat and belly. Bill dark, legs pinkish-grey, eye-ring white. Female similar but brown where male is grey and often with less pink on breast. Some males look like females and some females have much grey on head. Juvenile without grey, similar to female but with brown iris. Secretive, but can be seen hopping through open bushes. Male sings from perch and shows obvious song flight.
Voice. Calls 'whit', 'churr' and 'tec', typically 'wèht wèht whit whit whit'. Song a melodious fast warble with harsh and churring notes.
Distribution. Common summer visitor.
Habitat. Open well vegetated areas with thickets and copses, in dunes, parks, along banks, edges of woodland, etc.
Food. Mainly insects, in autumn also berries. Mainly feeds in bushes or low trees, but sometimes on vegetated ground.