Greater Whitethroat
Curruca communis
Found in open, scrubby habitats from coastal heaths, open woodlands, and low hedges to bramble thickets on waste ground. Rather retiring, like most warblers, but jerky climbing display flight often draws attention. Also gives its burbling, buzzing song from a perch. Often gives a rising, sparrow-like “weet, weet.” Plumage brownish overall with bright rusty wings; grayer head has narrow whitish eyering and sets off white throat, which often looks a little puffy.
Identification
This is one of several Curruca species that has distinct male and female plumages. Both sexes are mainly brown above and buff below, with chestnut fringes to the secondary remiges. The adult male has a grey head and a white throat. The female lacks the grey head, and the throat is duller.<p>The whitethroat's song is fast and scratchy, with a scolding tone. The hoarse, slightly nasal, call sounds like wed-wed or woid-woid. The warning cry is long-pulled, rough tschehr which resembles that of the Dartford warbler.
Taxonomy
The English ornithologist John Latham described the common whitethroat in 1783 in his A General Synopsis of Birds but introduced the binomial name Sylvia communis in the supplement to this work which was published in 1787. The specific communis is Latin for "common". The common whitethroat is now placed in the genus Curruca that was introduced by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein in 1802.<p>This species may appear to be closely related to the lesser whitethroat, the species having evolved only during the end of the last ice age similar to the willow warbler and chiffchaffs. However, researchers found the presence of a white throat is an unreliable morphological marker for relationships in Curruca, and the greater and lesser whitethroats are not closely related. A molecular phylogenetic study of the Sylviidae published in 2011 found that within the genus Curruca the common whitethroat and the lesser whitethroat are members of different clades and are thus not sister species.<p>Four subspecies are recognised:
- Scientific name
- Curruca communis
- Authority
- (Latham, 1787)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Sylviidae
- Genus
- Curruca
Range and habitat
This is a bird of open country and cultivation, with bushes for nesting. The nest is built in low shrub or brambles, and 3–7 eggs are laid. Like most warblers, it is insectivorous, but will also eat berries and other soft fruit.<p>In Europe, western and eastern populations of common whitethroats have contrasting moulting and pre-migratory fueling strategies to capitalise on food supplies before departing their breeding and non-breeding grounds.
- Breeding range
- PAL : widespread
- Non-breeding range
- AF
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- rising
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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