Common Whitethroat

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Habitat and behaviour

Habitat: Hedges, scrub (summer).
Diet: Insects, berries.
Best time to spot: Scratchy song; tail-flicking.

When to look

A summer visitor, typically in the UK from April to September. Numbers peak in May. See the May birding guide for what else is about. More on the season in Bird migration in Britain.

Taller bars mean more birds about. Grey means it is usually absent.

How rare is it?

The Common Whitethroat sits in our Common tier for the UK: one of the birds you can expect on most days out in the right habitat. It is Amber-listed in Birds of Conservation Concern 5, the middle level of concern in the UK.

Recent UK sightings

Similar birds

• Lesser WhitethroatUncommon · Hedges
• Barred WarblerRare · Coastal scrub (scarce)
• Sardinian WarblerEpic · Dense Med scrub
• Asian Desert WarblerLegendary · Coastal scrub
• Eastern Orphean WarblerLegendary · Scrub (extreme vagrant)
• Marmora's WarblerLegendary · Heath

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