The Lesser Whitethroat (Curruca curruca) is a small grey-brown warbler with dark cheeks, singing its dry "krrek-krrek-krrek" rattle from the tops of taller bushes. At 12–14 cm long, with a wingspan of 16–20 cm and a weight of 10–16 grams, it has a grey-brown back, a clean white underside and a grey head, with a dark, blackish-grey cheek patch that gives it a masked look against the paler head. The legs are dark, a useful mark against related warblers, and overall it is more compact, greyer and less colourful than the Common Whitethroat, which shows rufous wings.
Its song is distinctively two-part: a short, soft, low warbling introduction, "ti-ti-ti", that shifts abruptly into a fast, dry, hard rattle on an even pitch — "ti-ti-ti-krrekkrekkrekkrek" — with the rattling end carrying furthest and usually giving the bird away. It is delivered from the top of a tall bush, a treetop or a wire, most intensively from the male's arrival in May through late June, especially during bright summer nights and early mornings, tapering off noticeably in July; the call is a hard, sharp, monotone "tjak". The species breeds throughout Sweden to central Norrland, more thinly further north, with a population of roughly 100,000–200,000 pairs, favouring semi-open country thick with bushes — scrub and woodland edges, pastures, parks and gardens. As a long-distance migrant it arrives comparatively late and winters south of the Sahara, on the Arabian peninsula and in India. The nest is a small, neat cup hidden low in a dense bush, holding 4–5 eggs incubated by both parents for around 11–12 days; the young fledge roughly 11 days after hatching. It feeds mainly on insects, larvae and spiders during the breeding season, switching largely to berries in late summer to build fat reserves for the long flight south.
Read about this species in Swedish →