Black redstart
Phoenicurus ochruros
Recognise!
Males are nearly all black with a whitish spot in the wing and a red tail. Females and juveniles also have a red tail but their colour is grey-brown. Some males, that are one year old, look the same than females. Black redstarts are slightly smaller than house sparrows.
Did you know?
Black redstarts live in our villages and are still common in Luxemburg. The nest is build in fissures in walls, on roof beams in barns or even in nestboxes with a big entrance. Black redstarts lay whitish eggs. They eat mostly insects. Black redstarts spend wintertime near the Mediterranean Sea. In Luxemburg black redstarts can normally be observed from March to October. Sometimes if the winter is not too hard black redstarts may stay in Luxemburg.
Fotos: Jang Schock