The Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) is the jewel of the Swedish mountains, a small songbird now placed in the flycatcher family alongside its close relatives the Robin and Nightingale, roughly the same size as a Robin at about 14 cm long. The male in breeding plumage is unmistakable: the throat and breast carry a glowing cornflower-blue shield with a red central spot — a mark of the northern European subspecies, where southern birds show white instead — bordered below by narrow black and white bands and a rust-red crossband, above a uniformly brown back. Females and birds in winter plumage are far more subdued and may show no blue at all, but every Bluethroat, in any plumage, reveals rust-orange patches at the base of the tail whenever it lifts or fans it, a constant field mark that can even separate a plain female from a superficially similar Nightingale.
The species breeds in the Swedish mountain range from northern Dalarna northward, concentrated in Jämtland, Lappland and Norrbotten, favouring willow marsh and moist mountain birch forest with dwarf birch, usually near streams or bog edges. As a long-distance migrant it arrives late, not until the end of May, sings mainly through June and July, and leaves the mountains again by August or September, with occasional stragglers resting further south during passage. It nests on the ground, well hidden in a grass tussock or low inside a dense willow thicket, and the female lays 5–7 eggs in June, managing only a single brood in the short mountain summer; both parents feed the young. The diet consists mainly of insects, larvae, spiders and other small invertebrates gleaned from the ground and low vegetation, supplemented with berries later in the season. Its song ranks among the most beautiful in the mountain world — rich, clear and varied, laced with skilful imitations of other birds — and is delivered from a low birch or willow bush, heard at its best through the bright nights of the arctic summer, alongside a sharp, smacking "tak-tak" call and a whistled "huid".
Read about this species in Swedish →