Whitethroat

The whitethroat is a medium sized warbler about the size of a great tit. The whitethroat arrives in the UK from Africa about mid-April and returns in October.

 This is the first time I have seen a whitethroat in my garden. I was doing some gardening when I was attached by the movement in one of the bushes.

I think its a male as it does appear to have a tinge of grey but it could be a female.

The whitethroat actively searched for insects flicking and darting in usual warbler movements and even dropping from one branch onto a lower one.

At one point the warbler dropped to the ground and searched in the undergrowth beneath the bushes.


Lovely looking bird.

The whitethroat population crashed by about 70% between the 1968 and 1969 breeding season due to drought in the whitethroat's wintering grounds in Western Sahel (an area of Savannah south of the Sahara).

Since then their numbers have slowly been recovering, but this is worrying when you consider the changes in global climate. Species that migrate to the UK may be affected but climate changes while in their wintering grounds impacting on the number of birds that migrate to the UK to breed.

And of course they may also be affected by changes in climate and weather while they are in the UK.