The Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) is the character bird of mountain heath and open stony ground — a lively, upright bird easily recognised by its bright white rump and the black, inverted-T pattern on its tail, flashed every time it takes flight. It measures 14–17 cm, has a wingspan of 26–32 cm and weighs 20–30 grams. In summer the male shows a blue-grey crown and back, a black mask through the eye, a pale beige breast and white underparts, while the female is a more subdued brownish-grey; both sexes share the diagnostic white rump and tail pattern, and the bird often perches upright on a rock, flicking its tail.
Its call is a hard, smacking "chak-chak", as if two stones were being knocked together, while the song is short, chattering and raspy, often incorporating mimicry of other birds, and delivered from a rock or a brief song flight. Now classified within the flycatcher family, the Northern Wheatear breeds in open stony terrain across large parts of Europe, Asia and North America, and is a pronounced long-distance migrant — remarkably, the entire world population, including North American breeders, winters in Africa south of the Sahara. In Sweden it breeds throughout the country, from the coasts of Skåne to the bare mountains, wherever suitable stony ground exists, with a population estimated at 75,000–150,000 pairs; it arrives in April–May and departs again in August–September. The nest is hidden in a cavity — a stone wall, beneath a rock, in a brush pile, a rotten log or an old rodent burrow — where the female lays 5–6 eggs, well protected from both predators and weather. It feeds on insects and spiders picked from the ground, hunting by watching from a rock, dashing out after prey, or making short aerial sallies after flying insects.
Read about this species in Swedish →