Whinchat

The English name for this diminutive bird comes from its habit of hanging around the gorse plants of its native western Europe and Britain, and its call. It’s solitary, though both parents raise the young, and it makes a surprisingly strenuous migration from Europe to sub-Saharan Africa. Its one vulnerability is that it likes to build its nest on the ground, and too often those nests get run over by mowing machines.

Five Amazing Facts

• It’s a solitary little bird, though it may create small groups in the fall.
• Its eggs are robin’s egg blue.
• Adults molt all their feathers in the late summer.
• Though it’s widely distributed in much of Europe, it’s considered rare in Ireland.
• The Whinchat sometimes breeds with the European stonechat.

Where To Find the Whinchat

In spring and early summer, the whinchat is found in much of Europe and western Asia. It’s found as far north as Norway and as far south as Greece and as far east as the Caucasus Mountains. In the late summer and fall, it migrates to sub-Saharan Africa. It can be found as far west as Senegal and as far east as Kenya and as far south as Zambia, though some birds have been found in South Africa.

Whinchat Nests

The whinchat’s nesting habitat is on the ground, usually among shrubbery. This is problematic because it exposes the nest to being trampled by livestock or run over by farm equipment. The female builds the nest out of moss and dried grass and lines it with hair and the finer blades of bentgrass.

Classification and Scientific Name

The whinchat’s scientific name is Saxicola rubetra. Saxicola comes from the Latin words for “rock”, which is saxum, and “dwelling”, which is incola. Rubetra is also Latin and means “small bird.” So the scientific name can mean “small bird who lives among the rocks.” Whin is a name for gorse, a type of shrub that’s found in western Europe, and chat describes the bird’s calls. The Whinchat is generally considered monotypic, but some authorities recognize regional variations or subspecies.

Appearance

The whinchat is a small bird that’s about 4.7 to 5.65 inches long with a weight of between 0.46 to 0.92 ounces. Its legs are long in proportion to its body, and it has a short tail. It isn’t a boldly colored bird, but both male and female are brown, with mottled dorsal areas, a buff-colored breast and throat, and a paler belly. The tail is very dark brown or black, and the tail feathers are white at the base. The male becomes a bit more colorful during the breeding season. He develops a black mask with a white stripe that runs from his beak to the back of his head and a white stripe on each cheek. His throat and breast change from buff to a more orange color, and he has small white patches on his wing coverts. The female is duller and lacks these patches. Outside of the breeding season, males and females are hard to tell apart.

Behavior

The whinchat is a sprightly little bird that is often seen hopping over the ground and flicking its wings and tail. It has a somewhat grating but soft call, though it only gives alarm calls while in its wintering grounds. It is usually solitary but can be seen in little family groups when it migrates. It prefers pasture or lightly farmed grassland with a decent number of shrubs, fence posts, or even a sturdy plant on which to perch. These perches are where they suss out the area for potential prey and display to fellow whinchats. After the breeding season, adult whinchats completely molt their feathers but grow new feathers in time to migrate. They also have a partial molt in the spring, just before they fly north from their wintering grounds.

Diet

Whinchats are largely insectivores, though they’ll also take spiders, worms, and snails. Now and then, they’ll eat fruit and seeds.

Whinchat Predators and Threats

As a little bird, the whinchat has a variety of predators. They include mustelids such as stoats and weasels, and birds of prey such as the merlin, which is a small but rapacious falcon. Magpies and crows take hatchlings, and cuckoos practice nest parasitism. The cuckoo lays its egg in a whinchat nest and then leaves. The whinchat parents then devote much of their time to raising the enormous cuckoo chick to the detriment of their own chicks. Bad weather also impacts the birds’ ability to breed successfully.

Conservationists believe that, on top of these threats, the whinchat is imperiled by the mowing of its nesting habitat.

Reproduction, Babies, and Lifespan

Whinchats breed at the end of April and into May. The female builds the nest by herself and lays from four to seven blue eggs. These eggs hatch eleven to fourteen days later, and both parents feed the chicks. The chicks leave the nest when they’re about two weeks old, even though they’re not yet able to fly. They’ll fledge a few days after this, but their parents still feed them for another two weeks or so. Whinchats are not particularly long-lived birds and only have a lifespan of about two years, though some have been known to live to nearly seven years.

Whinchat Population

Whinchats are fairly abundant where they live, though their population is declining largely due to silage cutting that disrupts the nesting habitat. The bird’s conservation status is Least Concern.