Sylvia communis
Silhouette: Alexis Lours · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The greater whitethroat or common whitethroat (Curruca communis) is a common and widespread Old World warbler which breeds throughout Europe and across much of temperate western Asia. This small passerine bird is strongly migratory, and winters in tropical Africa, Arabia, and Pakistan.
The English ornithologist John Latham described the Greater whitethroat in 1783 in his A General Synopsis of Birds but introduced the binomial name Sylvia communis in the supplement to this work which was published in 1787. The specific communis is Latin for "common". The common whitethroat is now placed in the genus Curruca that was introduced by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein in 1802.
This species may appear to be closely related to the lesser whitethroat, the species having evolved only during the end of the last ice age similar to the willow warbler and chiffchaffs. However, researchers found the presence of a white throat is an unreliable morphological marker for relationships in Curruca, and the greater and lesser whitethroats are not closely related. A molecular phylogenetic study of the Sylviidae published in 2011 found that within the genus Curruca the common whitethroat... Wikipedia →
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Germany · 2026
© nicandra711ph · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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United Kingdom · 2026
© hstone26 · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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United Kingdom · 2026
© Geoff Stockle · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jerusalem | 🇮🇱 Israel | |
| 2 | Abu Dhabi | 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | |
| 3 | Doha | 🇶🇦 Qatar | |
| 4 | N'Djamena | 🇹🇩 Chad | |
| 5 | Novosibirsk | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 6 | Kuwait City | 🇰🇼 Kuwait | |
| 7 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland | |
| 8 | Manchester | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 9 | Ramallah | 🇵🇸 Palestine | |
| 10 | Liverpool | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Whitethroat sighting in Abu Dhabi on a given day, based on 232 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 25th most-seen of the 159 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Whitethroat in Abu Dhabi on a given day, against under 5% in December to February, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Whitethroat sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 64 cities where we can rate Whitethroat sightings, Abu Dhabi ranks 2nd at about 20%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Jerusalem (Israel, about 20%).
Same genus: Sylvia
The closest relatives of the Whitethroat that you can see in Abu Dhabi (genus Sylvia, Sylvia Warblers) are Lesser Whitethroat (about 20%), Blackcap (about 20%) and Barred Warbler (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Whitethroat is recorded against all the birds logged in Abu Dhabi (232 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
