The Ring Ouzel (Turdus torquatus) is the mountain's answer to the Blackbird — a dark, powerfully built thrush found along the entire Swedish mountain range from Idre in the south to Treriksröset in the north, rarely seen at lower elevations except on migration. The male is sooty black with a striking white crescent-shaped patch across the breast, pale-edged wing feathers that give a scaly appearance in flight, and a dark grey bill with a yellowish base. The female is browner and duller, with a more diffuse and limited white breast patch against a brownish-grey background. With an estimated 6,000–9,000 breeding pairs in Sweden, the species is fairly common throughout the fells but breeds almost exclusively between 600 and 1,200 metres above sea level, arriving in April and beginning to sing immediately on arrival.
Its song is a melancholic, flute-like phrase repeated with pauses — often rendered as "klotjiu-klotjiu-klotjiu" — delivered from boulders, cliff edges or tall willow bushes, while its call is a hard, dry "tsack-tsack", more metallic than the Blackbird's. Ring Ouzels breed from May to July in the subalpine birch belt and on open fell heath with willow and juniper scrub, building a robust nest of grass, moss and mud tucked into a willow bush or rock crevice, with 4–5 eggs incubated for 13–14 days. Insects and worms dominate the diet during the breeding season, but crowberries, cloudberries and blueberries become vital fuel in late summer ahead of migration to the Mediterranean region. The species is classified as Least Concern both in Sweden and globally, though a warming climate that pushes the treeline upward may gradually shrink the open fell habitat it depends on.
Read about this species in Swedish →