Black Redstart

How to identify

Field marks

1. Rump and tail orange-red; central two tail feathers dark rufous
2. Adult male with dark gray to black upperparts and a black breast
3. Female gray to grayish-rufous, retaining an orange-red rump and tail
4. Axillaries and underwing coverts gray

Male, female and young

Female gray to grayish-rufous overall; most first-year males of western subspecies resemble the female.

Voice

Male song resembles a series of trills; call is “tick”.

Similar species

Common Redstart

Female Black Redstart is grayer than female Common Redstart; at all ages, Black Redstart has gray axillaries and underwing coverts, whereas those of Common Redstart are pale yellow to orange-red.

Where and when it's recorded

Black Redstart has been recorded at 1,668 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 93 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Urdaibai RB – bird center y laguna de OruetaSpain2,473 records
2. Zamora – Río DueroSpain2,377 records
3. Bharatpur – Keoladeo Ghana NPIndia2,190 records

Countries and regions with the most records

SpainPortugalIndiaGermanyCzechiaUnited KingdomFrancePoland

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The black redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros) is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family. It is a widespread breeder in rocky habitats across Eurasia and North Africa, from the British Isles south to Morocco and east to central China. It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but northern and eastern birds migrate.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions