| Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra (Linnaeus, 1758)) |
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Scientific name: Saxicola rubetra (Linnaeus, 1758) Common name: Whinchat French name: Tarier des prés, Traquet tarier. Order: Passeriformes Family: Muscicapidae Size: Body size: 12 to 14 cm; Weight: 16 to 24 g; Wingspan: 21 to 24 cm. Habitat: Grassland exploited extensively, wetlands, with slightly elevated perches to be used as singing station: bushes, fence posts, robust plants like umbellifers for example. Food: Insects and spiders. Nesting: The nest is located on the ground among high grasses. Females lay 5 to 7 eggs in April-May. Migration: Whinchats winter in sub-Saharan Africa. Small populations winter in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Geographic area: Europe and western Asia, from Portugal and Ireland east to the Ob river basin, from centre of Spain and Italia to northern Norway. |
Male Whinchats in nuptial plumage are spotted with brown and black on the upper side. Throat, chest and flanks are orange. This colour gradually becomes lighter under the belly to become white. The head shows a black mask located between a broad white eyebrow on the upper side and a white malar stripe below. The top of the head is blackish brown. There are one or two white alar patches. The bill and the legs are blackish brown. Females and juveniles have pale beige eyebrows, the lateral sides of their head are a lighter colour and they do not show any alar patch. The populations of Whinchat have significantly declined these last years due to the destruction of their habitat caused by the change of agricultural practices. |
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If hayfields have declined significantly in the Basse Vallée du Doubs, there are still some of them in the flood zone. A few pairs of Whinchat nest here but their small number is a concern. |
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I have observed this singing male rather in the far and this picture is an important crop. At this date, all my other tries to observe again this small passerine bird have remained unsuccessful. |
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I am slowly getting closer … |
André Bon July 2018