Animalia Life

Sylvia communis
SUBFAMILY
Sylviinae
TAXONOMY
Sylvia communis Latham, 1787.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Common whitethroat, greater whitethroat; French: Fauvette grisette; German: Dorngrasmьcke; Spanish: Curruca Zarcera.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
5.5 in (14 cm); 0.4–0.9 oz (10–24 g). Medium-sized warbler with gray-brown upperparts, whitish underparts, buffy flanks, gray (male) or brownish (female) cap and side of face, and a bright white throat. Folded wing shows significant rufous edging of coverts, secondaries and tertials. Long tail with white outer tail feathers.
DISTRIBUTION
Breeds in Western and Central Europe, southern and coastal Scandinavia, Turkey, North Africa, and Western and Central Siberia. Winters in sub-Saharan Africa.
HABITAT
Open scrubland, farmland and forest edges, with mix of herbaceous and low woody vegetation.
BEHAVIOR
Typically solitary or in pairs. Skulking, but inquisitive. Male song a short, scratchy warble. Territorial. Engages in songflight display, rising vertically from shrub, then swooping back down.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Forages in low and mid-height vegetation, gleaning arthropods.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Monogamous. Male builds ‘cock nests’. Nest a loose, deep cup of grasses in dense, low, tangled vegetation. Three to six eggs incubated 11–13 days, mostly by female; young brooded and fed by both parents, leave nest after 10–12 days, remain with parents 2–3 weeks.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
None known.

Other popular Animals