Home > European Stonechat

The European Stonechat Saxicola rubicola is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, family Muscicapidae. They, with similar small species in the family, are often called chats.

It is a partially migratory insectivorous species. Two ill-defined (doubtfully distinct) races are accepted, the European race S. r. rubicola in the south and east of its range, and the Atlantic coastal race S. r. hibernans in the west and northwest. Together, these two races are found throughout western, central and southern Europe, the extreme northwest of Africa and western TurkeyTurkey (officially the Republic of Turkey Turkish Turkiye is a country located in Southwest Asia with a small part in southeastern Europe. Until 1922 the country was the center of the Ottoman Empire. The Anatolian peninsula, between the Black Sea and the. European Stonechats breed in heathlandHeaths are anthropogenic habitats found primarily in northern and western Europe, where they have been created by thousands of years of human clearance of natural forest vegetation by grazing and burning on mainly infertile acidic soils. They subdivide in, coastal duneAlternate meanings: Dune (novel), Dune (movie), Dune (TV miniseries), Dune (music) or Dune (computer game In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by eolian ( wind-related) processes. Bare dunes are subject to shifting location and size baseds and rough grasslandInner Mongolia Grassland. Grassland is one of several types of terrestrial biomes, where grasses form the predominant vegetation, usually mixed with herbs and sometimes with shrubs, but usually without trees. Grassland dotted with trees is called Savanna. with scattered small shrubThe word 'bush' re-directs here; for alternate uses see Bush (disambiguation A shrub or bush is a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 6 ms and brambleBramble refers to thorny plants of the genus Rubus, in the rose family, Rosaceae. Brambles include blackberries, loganberries, and other plants. Bramble bushes have a distinctive growth form. They send up long, arching canes that do not flower or set frui, open gorseUlex argenteus ''Ulex boivinii Ulex borgiae ''Ulex cantabricus ''Ulex densus ''Ulex europaeus Common gorse Ulex gallii Western gorse Ulex genistoides Ulex micranthus ''Ulex minor Dwarf gorse Ulex parviflorus Ref: Gorse Ulex comprises a genus of about 20 s, tussocks or heatherCalluna vulgaris Calluna is the name of a monospecific genus in the family Ericaceae. The solitary species is Calluna vulgaris which is the true heather of Europe. It is found widely in Europe and Asia Minor.. They are non-migratory or short-distance migrants, with part of the population moving south to winter further south in Europe and more widely in north Africa. The scientific name rubicola ("rubus dweller") refers to one of its favoured habitats, brambles ( Rubus).

The European Stonechat is somewhat smaller than the European Robin. Both sexes have distinctively short wings, shorter than those of the more migratory Whinchat and Siberian Stonechat. The summer male rubicola has black upperparts, a black head, an orange throat and breast, and a white belly and vent. It also has white patches on the sides of its neck, a small white scapular patch on the wings, and a very small white patch on the rump often streaked with black. The female has paler brown upperparts and head, and no white neck patches, rump or belly, these areas being streaked dark brown on paler brown, the only white being the scapular patch on the wings and even this often being buffy-white.

The male has a clicking call like stones knocking together, for which it was named. The song is high and twittering like a Dunnock.

Other members of the genus include

• Siberian Stonechat, Saxicola maura
• African Stonechat, Saxicola torquata
• Whinchat, Saxicola rubetra
• Fuerteventura Chat, Saxicola dacotiae

In the past, the first two of these were generally considered conspecific with European Stonechat, being listed as the Common Stonechat Saxicola torquata, but recent genetic evidence (Urquhart & Bowley 2002) strongly supports their separation into distinct species.