Sylvia communis
Silhouette: Alexis Lours · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
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 →
Recording0:12
Germany · 2026
© nicandra711ph · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:08
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Whitethroat sighting in Meru National Park on a given day, based on 12 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 210th most-seen of the 243 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Whitethroat in Meru National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April, June, September–October and December–January, the lowest months. That is one of Meru National Park's wettest months, with about 200 mm of rain against almost none in July. May and July–August have too few records to rate.
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.
15th of 36
Of the 36 parks where we can rate Whitethroat sightings, Meru National Park ranks 15th at about 10%. The best odds are in Biebrza National Park (Poland, about 30%), Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (Mongolia, about 30%) and Białowieża National Park (Poland, about 20%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Whitethroat that you can see in Meru National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Superb Starling (about 90%), White-headed Buffalo-Weaver (about 80%) and Fork-tailed Drongo (about 80%), 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 Meru National Park (12 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
