Lesser Whitethroat of Britain
Photo credit:gilgit2 on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-SA
The Lesser Whitethroat, Sylvia curruca, is a grey warbler who is smaller than a Great Tit. Lesser Whitethroats are a common breeding bird with an estimated 74,0000 pairs visiting Britain every year. They are considered a scarce summer visitor in the Ireland with only a handful of breeding records.
Lesser Whitethroats are unique among the birdlife which visit Britain as most of the population fly along the eastern Mediterrean (northern Italy) to their wintering grounds in Africa rather than flying through Gibraltar.
The back of adult is grey-brown with a grey mask on the head and the underparts are off-white.
Lesser Whitethroats are secretive and elusive birds who sulk in the dense foliage of trees and hedges. Pairs establish a breeding territory after arriving in the spring. Their favoured trees and shrubs are hawthorn and blackthorns.
They can often be heard making a distinctive call of “tac-tac” from in dense vegetation between late April and June.
The diet of the Lesser Whitethroat during the spring and summer is a wide range of insects. Ants, flies, beetles and caterpillars are some of common items of food consumed.
Berries and fruit are eaten in the autumn before returning to their African wintering.
Lesser Whitethroats are summer visitors who arrive in late spring, or between April and May. They fly long distances from Africa as they migrate cross the Sahara Desert, Israel, Turkey and Crete before reaching Britain.
Breeding takes place on lower ground in England, Wales and southern Scotland. Most are found in southern and central England with fewer in northern and extreme west of Britain.
Towns and mountainous regions are normally avoided although some venture into parks and gardens in the late summer.
A map of the breeding distribution of Lesser Whitethroats in Britain and Ireland has been provided by the British Trust for Ornithology (
Flocks of up to 20 birds migrate together to their wintering grounds in Africa between mid July and mid October. Lesser Whitethroats fly across the eastern Meditterea through northern Italy. They make the long journey across the Sahara Desert to winter in the Sudan, Ethopia and Chad.
Pairs breed among the dense foliage of small trees and bushes in hedgerows along farmland, thickets, woodland, overgrown railway embankments, disused industrial sites, scrub and coastal heaths. The breeding season begins in late April and ends in July.
The male makes one or two nests and then sings to attract a female. The nest is a deep cup of grass and roots.
Four or five eggs are laid around mid-May which take between 11 and 12 days to hatch. The young learn to fly after 2 weeks. Both parents care for the young and can raise 2 broods a year.
The Lesser Whitethroat is classified as of Least Concern by IUCN.
Europe holds 45% of the global population of Lesser Whitethroats. The European population was reported as stable between 1980 and 2013.
The Lesser Whitethroat is a green-listed species of bird in Britain.
“Lesser Whitethroat abundance was roughly stable..from the 1960s until the late 1980s” but suffered a “subsequent moderate decline that lasted into the late 1990s”.
The RSPB estimated a third of the population of Lesser Whitethroats was lost during the 1980s and 1990s (RSPB Handbook of British Birds).
The population has shown a “significant sharp upturn” but there were also reports of a “continued decrease”. “A northward redistribution of the UK breeding population…may go some way to explaining inconsistencies”
The factors in the decline of Lesser Whtiethroats are problems experienced during migration and cold winter weather,
The population in Europe has remained “broadly stable” since the 1980s (BTO – species:https://app.bto.org/birdtrends/species.jsp?year=2019&s=leswh ).
Lesser Whitethroats began extending their breeding north and westwards in Britain during the 1960s. Pairs were reported as regularly breeding in Northumberland, Devon, Cornwall and Scotland between the 1970s and 1990s.
There has also been a range expansion in domr countries in Europe such as Norway where Lesser Whitethroats are also moving north and westwards (to breed Paisley Natural History Society -
The main threats to Lesser Whitethroats is loss of habitat due to agricultural intensification, problems during migration and winter weather.
For more information on the birds of the gardens and countryside of Britain and Ireland, please visit,
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