WHITETHROAT 



via cinerea 



HE Whitethroat is one of the best known of the Warblers, 

 and is pretty generally distributed in all suitable localities 

 throughout the British Islands, becoming somewhat rarer 

 and more local in the extreme north of Scotland. It is 

 also found on some of the Inner Hebrides, and is a 

 straggler to the Orkneys and Shetlands. 



The Whitethroat is essentially a bird of the thicket, 



and loves the thickly tangled hedgerows, or the bushes and undergrowth 

 overgrown with bindweed or choked with long grass. It is, however, not 

 very partial to woods, but is usually found in lanes, by the roadside or on 

 the outskirts of plantations ; a favourite place is on the patches of waste land 

 which are overgrown with briers, nettles, foxgloves and brambles. It is a 

 very restless, active little bird, hopping quickly about from twig to twig, and 

 generally keeping pretty well out of sight, as it works its way along some 

 thick hedgerow. Soon after his arrival in this country the male Whitethroat 

 commences to sing; and a very bold little songster he is too, allowing the 

 observer to approach within quite a short distance, as he sits on the top of 

 some spray on the hedge and pours forth his song, the feathers on his head 

 erected and his throat quivering with the exertion. The song is rather 

 monotonous, the same notes being many times repeated, but it is very sweet 

 in tone. In early summer the males sing almost incessantly the whole day, 

 sometimes taking little song-flights, or resting on some conspicuous twig. 

 When the male and female are chasing each other about among the branches 

 they have a low soft note which is incessantly repeated, and may be represented 

 by the syllables ' htueet-hwect-hweet ' uttered rapidly. The alarm -note is a 

 sort of hissing sound, something like ' c/tzzzz' 



The food of the Whitethroat consists principally of insects of various 

 kinds, which it may often be seen chasing in the air or picking from the 



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