Bluethroat Luscinia svecica

Bluethroat
Luscinia Svecica

Length: 13-14cm

A rather small bird and slim bird with long thin legs, in all plumages told by obvious whitish supercilium and rusty-red patch on sides of tail-base (often seen in flight, or when perched bird flicks tail up).

The male has a bright blue bib, bordered below by a narrow black and white band and a broader rusty-red one. Inlaid in the centre of the blue, birds in N. Europe have a rusty throat patch, those in the rest of Europe a small white patch or none at all. As you can see from the photos this bird has a small white patch.

In autumn, some of the bright throat colours are replaced by yellowish-white areas.

The females have variable throat markings: usually just an arc of black spots on creamy-white ground. Older birds occasionally have some blue, plus black and rusty border across breast.

The bluethroat in Europe breeds in swamplands by fens and rivers overgrown with bushes, reeds, alder etc. It feeds on insects. Nests in tussock or low dense willow bush.

It is a common winter visitor to costal wetlands and La Janda.

We hope you have enjoyed these photos of the Bluethroat.

Until our next outing!