Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe)
Autumn passage ...
Autumn passage ...
With its flash of white rump, the Northern Wheatear O. oenanthe is a rather smart, insectivorous passerine.
It
has a vast range across most of Europe, the Palearctic and as far as Greenland
and parts of Arctic North America. Astonishingly, as their ancestors before,
all migrate to winter in Africa in a belt south of the Sahara - one of the lengthiest recorded migrations of any small
bird. The British population is currently estimated (2014) at 230,000
pairs; most of which are concentrated in the uplands of the north and west. It
is a very scarce summer visitor, though regular passage migrant during spring and autumn, along parts of
the Sussex coast and Downs.
A
bird I am always pleased to see …
References:
Yates,
B.J. and James, P. 1996. Wheatear. Birds of Sussex. Sussex
Ornithological Society, pp. 425-427.
Yates, B., 2014. Northern Wheatear. The Birds of Sussex. Thetford: British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Books on behalf of the Sussex Ornithological Society, pp. 522-523.
Yates, B., 2014. Northern Wheatear. The Birds of Sussex. Thetford: British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Books on behalf of the Sussex Ornithological Society, pp. 522-523.
