Warble UK
Whinchat
Photo: El Golli Mohamed / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Birds / Thrushes and chats

Whinchat

Saxicola rubetra
Tricky Summer visitor UplandsFarmland
Test yourself

Recording: Patrik Åberg / xeno-canto

Sounds like

Short, scratchy phrases mixed with sweet notes and mimicry. Call: 'hu-tek-tek'.

Remember it

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

When and where

Listening for the whinchat

Heard
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Apr to Jul
Time of day
Day
Where
Uplands, Farmland
In Britain
Summer visitor
Family
Thrushes and chats

Side by side

Often confused with

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

Whinchat

Whinchat

Saxicola rubetra
JFMAMJJASOND

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

Stonechat

Stonechat

Saxicola rubicola
JFMAMJJASOND

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

Could you pick out a whinchat?

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

Play the quiz

Same habitat

Also in uplands

See all
Wren

Wren

Troglodytes troglodytes
JFMAMJJASOND

Astonishingly loud for its size: a fast, explosive outpouring of notes with a hard, rattling trill in the middle.

Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipit

Anthus pratensis
JFMAMJJASOND

Thin 'seep-seep' calls when flushed.

Skylark

Skylark

Alauda arvensis
JFMAMJJASOND

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

Willow Warbler

Willow Warbler

Phylloscopus trochilus
JFMAMJJASOND

A soft, sweet cascade of notes that falls gently down the scale and ends with a flourish.