Sylvia curruca
Silhouette: Martin Bulla, based on John Cox's illustration · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The lesser whitethroat (Curruca curruca) is a common and widespread Old World warbler which breeds in temperate Europe, except the southwest, and in the western and central Palearctic. This small passerine bird is strongly migratory, wintering in Africa just south of the Sahara, Arabia and India.
Unlike many sylviid warblers, the sexes are almost identical. This is a small species with a grey back, whitish underparts, a grey head with a darker "bandit mask" through the eyes and a white throat. It is slightly smaller than the common whitethroat, and lacks the chestnut wings and uniform head-face colour of that species. The lesser whitethroat's song is a fast and rattling sequence of tet or che calls, quite different from the common whitethroat's scolding song.
Like most "warblers", it is insectivorous, but will also take berries and other soft fruit. This is a bird of fairly open country and cultivation, with large bushes for nesting and some trees. The nest is built in low shrub or brambles, and 3 to 7 eggs are laid.
The lesser whitethroat was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial... Wikipedia →
Recording0:22
Austria · 2025
© E. A. · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0
Recording0:16
Russia · 2024
© Dina Nesterkova · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:14
Germany · 2026
© Frederic Griesbaum · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hanover Zoo | 🇩🇪 Germany |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Whitethroat sighting in Athens on a given day, based on 28 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 89th most-seen of the 145 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Whitethroat in Athens on a given day, against under 5% in November to September, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lesser 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.
84th of 97
Of the 97 cities where we can rate Lesser Whitethroat sightings, Athens ranks 84th at under 5%. The best odds are in Jerusalem (Israel, about 60%), Ramallah (Palestine, about 40%) and Jodhpur (India, about 30%).
Same genus: Sylvia
The closest relatives of the Lesser Whitethroat that you can see in Athens (genus Sylvia, Sylvia Warblers) are Blackcap (about 40%) and Whitethroat (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lesser Whitethroat is recorded against all the birds logged in Athens (28 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.
