Stonechat

Name: Stonechat

Scientific name: Saxicola torquata

Category: Birds

Nature Stars: 50

What are nature stars?

About: A small, dumpy chat, a little smaller than the Robin. Stonechats have quite a big head and short tail. They can frequently be seen sitting on the top of gorse bushes, calling like two small stones being hit together. Males are dark above, with a reddish o

How to identify: Darker than the similar Whinchat, with no pale eyestripe and a dark throat. Whinchats have pale patches at the base of the tail: Stonechat tails are all dark.

Where: Resident on moorland and heathland throughout the country. Can also be found on saltmarshes around the coast during the winter.

Natural Superpowers

• Predator: 50
• Agility: 60
• Rarity: 60
• Cute factor: 50
• Traveller: 60

Fantastic fact: On heathland in the south of England, Dartford Warblers can often be found following Stonechats around, perhaps catching the small insects that the larger bird disturbs.

Photograph credit: Photo credit tbc