Profile
In flight
Songbirds
Bluethroat
Luscinia svecica
- uncommon
- 32 km/h
- Least Concern
Tiny thrush with an electric blue throat, banded red and white. Imitates more than 50 species, an accomplished mimic.
- Population
- Very large and stable; European breeding population alone estimated in the millions of pairs (BirdLife International / Wikipedia secondary sourcing)
- Habitat
- Wet, shrubby lowland and subarctic habitats with dense low cover — reedbeds, willow and birch scrub, wetland margins, tundra scrub, and damp agricultural edges
- Fun fact
- Breeding males display an iridescent blue throat patch bordered by narrow black and chestnut bands, with a central spot (white, red, or absent) that varies by subspecies and population; genetic studies show only limited variation between these visually distinct forms, confirming Bluethroat is a single species.
- Range
- Trans-Palearctic: breeds from Scandinavia and scattered western European populations (Iberia, France, Low Countries, central Europe) across Russia and northern Asia to a small foothold in western Alaska; winters in southern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South/Southeast Asia
- Diet
- Primarily insectivorous — beetles, flies, small grasshoppers, damselflies, spiders, worms, and snails gleaned from the ground and low vegetation; supplements with berries and fruit in late summer and autumn
- Size
- 0.135 m
- Wingspan
- 0.22 m
- Lifespan
- 9 years
