Birds / Thrushes and chats

Stonechat

Saxicola rubicola

Also known as European stonechat

Tricky All year Heath Coast Uplands

Test yourself

Recording: Herman van Oosten / xeno-canto

Sounds like

A sharp 'wheet, tak-tak' like two stones knocked together. The song is a short, scratchy warble.

Remember it

Two pebbles tapped together from the top of a gorse bush.

When and where

Listening for the stonechat

Heard: JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Feb to Jul
Time of day: Day
Where: Heath, Coast, Uplands
In Britain: All year
Family: Thrushes and chats

Side by side

Often confused with

Play them one after the other and listen for the difference.

Stonechat

Saxicola rubicola

JFMAMJJASOND

Two pebbles tapped together from the top of a gorse bush.

Whinchat

Saxicola rubetra

JFMAMJJASOND

A softer cousin of the stonechat's 'tak', on rough grassland and bracken.

Robin

Erithacus rubecula

JFMAMJJASOND

Sweet but melancholy. A bird singing in the depths of winter is almost always a robin.

Could you pick out a stonechat?

Hear a song, choose from four birds, and build your streak.

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Same habitat

Also in heath

See all

Linnet

Linaria cannabina

JFMAMJJASOND

A fast, pleasant twittering with soft trills and buzzes, often from the top of a gorse bush or a flock in flight.

Meadow Pipit

Anthus pratensis

JFMAMJJASOND

Thin 'seep-seep' calls when flushed.

Skylark

Alauda arvensis

JFMAMJJASOND

An endless, rapid stream of warbling and trilling from high in the sky, sometimes for minutes without a break.

Whitethroat

Curruca communis

JFMAMJJASOND

A short, fast, scratchy burst, often delivered in a jerky song flight above a hedge.