Lesser Whitethroat

Sylvia curruca

Scarce Summer visitors from April-October with 64,000 breeding pairs in Britain & has bred in Ireland.

Also breeds in mainland Europe.

Winters in tropical Africa.

The sexes are almost identical.

This is a small species with a grey back, whitish underparts, a grey head with a darker "bandit mask" through the eyes and a white throat.

It is slightly smaller than the Common Whitethroat, and lacks the chestnut wings and uniform head-face colour of that species.

The song is a fast and rattling sequence of tet or che calls, quite different from the common whitethroat's scolding song.