thumb|right|Adult female [[Chemnitz, Germany]]

thumb|right|Adult female, [[Uganda]]

The whinchat (Saxicola rubetra) is a small migratory passerine bird breeding in Europe and western Asia and wintering in central Africa. At one time considered to be in the thrush family, Turdidae, it is now placed in the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. Both sexes have a strong supercilium, brownish upper parts mottled darker, a pale throat and breast, a pale buff to whitish belly, and a blackish tail with white bases to the outer tail feathers, but in the breeding season, the male has an orange-buff throat and breast.

The whinchat is a solitary species, favouring open grassy country with rough vegetation and scattered small shrubs. It perches in elevated locations ready to pounce on the insects and other small invertebrates that form its diet. The nest is built by the female on the ground in coarse vegetation, with a clutch of four to seven eggs being laid. The hen incubates the eggs for about thirteen days and then both parents feed the nestlings. Fledging takes place about eighteen days after hatching and the parents continue to feed the young for another fortnight. Moulting takes place in late summer before the migration southwards, and again on the wintering grounds in Africa before the migration northwards in spring. The whinchat is a common species with a wide range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified it as being of "least concern".

Taxonomy and systematics

The whinchat was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it in the genus Motacilla and coined the binomial name Motacilla rubetra. The whinchat is now one of 15 chats placed in the genus Saxicola that was introduced by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein in 1802. The English name is derived from whin, the common gorse and chat referring to the nature of its calls. Its scientific name means "small rock-dweller", in reference to its habitat. Saxicola derives from Latin saxum ("rock") + incola ("dwelling"); rubetra is a Latin term for a small bird. No subspecies are recognised. As with other species of Saxicola, it was formerly considered a member of the thrush family (Turdidae), but is now placed in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It, and similar thrush-like Muscicapidae species, are often called chats.

Very rarely, hybridisation occurs between the whinchat and the Siberian stonechat (Saxicola maurus), with a case being reported in Finland in 1997. It has also been reported to hybridise with the European stonechat in western and southern Europe.

Description

The whinchat is a short-tailed bird, moving on the ground with small, rapid hops and frequently bobbing and flicking its wings and tail. It is similar in size to its relative the European robin (Erithacus rubecula), being long and weighing . Both sexes have brownish upperparts mottled darker, a buff throat and breast, a pale buff to whitish belly, and a blackish tail with white bases to the outer tail feathers.

thumb|Juvenile whinchat

The male in breeding plumage has a blackish face mask almost encircled by a strong white supercilium and malar stripe, a bright orange-buff throat and breast, and small white wing patches on the greater coverts and inner median coverts. The female is duller overall, in particular having browner face mask, pale buffy-brown breast, and a buff supercilium and malar stripe, and smaller or no white wing patches. Males in immature and winter plumage are similar to females, except that adult males retain the white wing patches all year round.

Though fairly similar to females and immatures of the European stonechat (S. rubicola), the whinchat can readily be distinguished by its conspicuous supercilium and whiter belly, and also in western Europe, by being paler overall than the western European stonechat subspecies S. rubicola hibernans. It also differs structurally in being slightly slimmer and less 'dumpy', and having longer wingtips (an adaptation to its long-distance migration). It is more easily confused with female or immature Siberian stonechat (S. maura), which (also being a long-distance migrant) shares the longer wingtips; however, Siberian stonechat can be distinguished by its conspicuous unmarked pale orange-buff rump (in whinchat, the rump is the same mottled brown colour as the back). Vagrants have reached northwest of the breeding range to Iceland, west on migration to the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, and south of the wintering range to northern South Africa. However, at the territory scale, low-elevation areas with a heterogeneous vegetation structure and high density of perches and tussocks are preferred.

Whinchats wintering in Nigeria have a large breeding range that spreads across continental Europe indicating low connectivity, arising from wide migratory dispersal, with high mixing of breeding populations during the non-breeding season. A lone vagrant was sighted for the first time in India by birder R. Mohammed Saleem during their Great Indian Bird Expedition SEEK2019 at Chambal National Park.

Behaviour and ecology

thumb|left|Typical behaviour

The whinchat is a largely solitary bird though it may form small family groups in autumn. or trampling by livestock, and are sometimes parasitised by the common cuckoo. There has been a similar decline in Ireland, where it is now classified as "rare".

References

  • Ageing and sexing (PDF; 4.5 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze
  • Feathers of Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra)
  • Xeno-canto: audio recordings of the whinchat