Stonechat; Tarabilla Común

Female. S. Rubicola is a small, chunky, and upright bird with blackish head and throat. The tail is short and blackish. It has black streaks on brown back (back duller in winter). It shows a white patch on both sides of the neck. The breast is rust-red with paler belly. Slim black legs. The female has brown upperparts and head, and no white neck patches, rump or belly, these areas being streaked dark brown on paler brown, the only white being the scapular patch on the wings and even this often being buffy-white. The Stonechat often perches on the tops of bushes or on overhead wires in otherwise rather open places. The nest is a grassy cup, lined with hair and feathers, often in dense grass with entrance tunnel; 5 or 6 eggs; 2 broods; May–July. It drops to ground to pick up insects, spiders,worms, and some seeds; catches some insects in flight, returning to eat them on a perch.