Appearance:

A large and long-tailed thrush. Slate grey lower back, rump and head. Brown upper back and yellow buff breast with dark spots. The all dark tail contrasts with the grey rump. Tail colour combined with white underwing distinguishes it from all other thrushes when flying. Flight undulated in long waves, with alternating glides and bursts of wing-beats.

Sound:

Very vocal. Scolding call a hard "check", often given in decelerating series. Contact call in migration a soft, pleasant but, buzzy "weet". Song a mix of dry contact calls; "trrrt trrrrt", and high pitched, drawn out, chattering improvisations. Typically bursts into continuos, squeaky chattering at takeoff.

Contact call, song:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Appearance:

Medium sized bunting, resembling a compact Yellowhammer in shape. Head green with yellow markings and underparts orange-brown. Distinct and characteristic, yellow eye-ring and earth-brown (not rufous) rump in all plumages. Female like male, but duller coloured, with streaked head and chest.

Sound:

Distinct bunting-like timbre with very prominent harmonics. Song simple, but varies from region to region. Sometimes structurally similar to yellowhammer, but slower, more melancholic, and with more clearly audible harmonics f.ex. "tze-ti tze-ti tze-ti tweeeee". Beginning with repeated alternating notes (tze-ti) and ending on a lower note fading out with a rising pitch. Sometimes without the ending note (like yellowhammer). Calls: a vaguely House Sparrow-like "chepp", with a ringing quality, and a sharper cut-off "zeep".

Song:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

CC-photo:Mick Sway, Licence,Link.