Common Whitethroat

Common Whitethroat (Curruca communis) is a small brown-backed warbler with chestnut wing panels, a long tail and a pale throat contrasting with a grey head in adult males. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in scrub and hedgerows across Europe and western Asia, feeds on insects and berries in dense low growth and migrates strongly to tropical Africa, Arabia and Pakistan. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. Japanese records place it within the country's documented avifauna as a resident, migrant or visitor (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Japan occurrence records).