Whitethroat Song Flight
Whitethroats (Sylvia communis) are common summer migrant warblers whose scratchy warble is a familiar sound in the countryside at the moment. Usually they sing from hedges or bushes but occasionally they indulge in song flights over their habitat. When they do this they splay their tails to show off the gleaming white outer tail feathers, which can be seen here. The white throat is also evident.
They are sometimes called Common Whitethroat to distinguish them from the scarcer Lesser Whitethroat. Their scientific name communis also means common, although their numbers took a dramatic crash in 1969 following a severe drought on their wintering grounds, the Sahel region of west Africa. The numbers have slowly built up since then, but haven't fully recovered forty five years later.
Whitethroat Song Flight
Whitethroats (Sylvia communis) are common summer migrant warblers whose scratchy warble is a familiar sound in the countryside at the moment. Usually they sing from hedges or bushes but occasionally they indulge in song flights over their habitat. When they do this they splay their tails to show off the gleaming white outer tail feathers, which can be seen here. The white throat is also evident.
They are sometimes called Common Whitethroat to distinguish them from the scarcer Lesser Whitethroat. Their scientific name communis also means common, although their numbers took a dramatic crash in 1969 following a severe drought on their wintering grounds, the Sahel region of west Africa. The numbers have slowly built up since then, but haven't fully recovered forty five years later.