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Bluethroats are small robin-like birds. Their plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and males and females are different. Note that there are some differences, in particular in male plumages, between the various races. Male Bluethroats have a blue throat and upper chest "bib", with either a rust-red (nominate race "svecica") or a white patch (race "cyanecula). Under the blue bib there is a horizontal black fringe, a white one below that and then another, wide, rust-red horizontal fringe. Belly, vent and undertail coverts are off-white. The crown and the ear coverts, which are separated in part by very conspicuous long, white supercilia, are brownish-grey, while the upperparts are greyish, with only a faint brownish hue. The wing feathers are dark-grey with thin brownish-grey outer edges. The outer tail feathers have a rusty-red base. Females have only faint indications of a "bib" - some with some blue, others without, but all with some rusty hues on the chest. They have off-white to creamy chin/throat and moustachial stripes. Otherwise, especially the upperparts, they are like males. The irises of both sexes are dark-brown. The almost straight bill is dark-grey, as are legs and feet. Juveniles are like females, but with yet fainter chest markings which are dark-grey, and never with either blue or rust-red.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Bluethroat is available HERE .

Bluethroat are a primarily migratory species, with only small areas where they are sedentary, such as in the southern Caucasus. Their total range spans the length and the width of Eurasia, from Iceland, the British Isles and Iberia in the West to far-eastern Asia in the East. The species is also present in near-coastal northern Africa. Some even cross the Bering Strait via the Aleutian island chain into northern Alaska. They breed in the northern parts of their range (central to northern Europe, mid- to high-latitude Asia, Alaska) and spend the northern winters in the southern part of the range (from north-western Africa, Iberia and the Mediterranean via the Middle East, the lower Nile valley, near-coastal Arabia and south-western Asia into the Indian subcontinent and further into south-eastern Asia).

In Europe, Bluethroats are winter visitors in near-coastal areas of the Mediterranean. Apart from a few breeding sites in Iberia and central Europe (near-coastal Benelux countries, southern Germany, parts of the Danube river valley) they breed in eastern Europe and in northern Scandinavia. Everywhere else they can be found only during their migration.

Bluethroats have a strong preference for wet habitats. When breeding they stay in well-vegetated swampland or, in the North of their range, in soggy upland birch forest with undergrowth. Also outside the breeding season they usually stay in wetlands, such as swamps, bogs or estuaries.

Race "cyanecula"