#stonechat

Oh, will you look at those migrants! Bringing joy and excitement, in their brief stops, during their long journeys.

A Stonechat Feathursday

The European Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola), once considered to be a thrush, has been reclassified, along with all species in the Chat subfamily, in Muscicapidae, the family of Old World Flycatchers, following genetic DNA analysis. The common name for the bird, as well as its species name, Saxicola (which translates as "rock-dweller"), derives from its call, which sounds like two stones knocked together.

Its epithet, rubicola ("bramble-dwelling"), derives from its habit of breeding in brambles, as depicted in this wood engraving by British author and wood engraver Eric Fitch Daglish (1892-1966) from his book Birds of the British Isles, published in London by J. M. Dent & Sons in 1948 in a limited edition of 1500 copies, with 23 black and white and 25 hand-colored wood engravings by Daglish. Our copy is a donation from our friend, Wisconsin wood engraver Tony Drehfal.

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6.) Stonechat

Stonechat for day 6

[ID: digital illustration of a pair of stonechats, male and female, perched in a twig with lichens. The female is above the male, both are perched towards the right side but are looking to the left. End ID]

Stonechat - Cartaxo-comum (Saxicola rubicola): female

Cabo da Roca/Portugal (29/12/2025)