It is over two years since I first shared photographs of this wonderful fly-catcher, but it has taken me until now to capture close-ups I was willing to share! The Bluethroat is a migratory bird here in Portugal, and we’ve been fortunate to observe them a few times now in the Algarve’s coastal wetlands. For more details on where you are most likely to see it in Portugal visit this page on the excellent Aves de Portugal website.
They are a passerine bird, about the size of Robin but much more secretive than Robins. At times their behaviour remind me more of Wrens than Robins. The male Blue Throat has a very distinctive blue breast, and so once you finally spot them – usually hopping along the waters edge under low hanging vegetation – you’ll know exactly what you are looking at. The next challenge is to take a photograph as usually you will be some distance away, and like Flamingoes they are not keen on humans getting too close. It was only thanks to my Nikon P900 I got these shots, although I probably didn’t need to take quite as many as I did!
The male in the galleries above and in the photograph below is the Luscinia svecica cyanecula as it has a whitish spot in the middle of the blue. In England if you are lucky enough to see one as they pass through it is more likely to be the L. svecica svecica which favours northern Europe and has a red spot in the centre of their bib. The ones in Turkey (L. svecica magna) have no spot at all.
Hope you have enjoyed my Six Word Saturday. For more delights and bloggers who manage to keep to six words in their post as well as their title visit Debbie.
Wow! This species is listed as occurring in a few of the places I used to visit in Spain, but I never managed even a glimpse of one, so it’s lovely to see such good images, lucky you!
Very very lucky we found this spot where there are so many every year . . . . .and one year I must head west as there the rare ones that way. Probably even more difficult to find though!
How cute and colourful, thanks for sharing, i love seeing and reading about birds around the world.
Thank you so much for your lovely comments and for popping by
What a wonderful bird you have photographed Becky
Thank you Brian. We’re so lucky to see him. He visits one of the ponds every year for about 4 to 6 weeks, and then disappears again.
Indeed lucky then 🙂