To hear a little more of Africa we need to look no further than one of this bird's neighbours a few kilometers down the track in the same woodland. It obliges with four more species of bee-eaters to add to the Green Bee-eater of its neighbour: from north to south, European M apiaster, Blue-cheeked, White-throated M albicollis and Red-throated Bee-eater M bulocki. At the same time, it reminds us where we are by imitating an Iberian Magpie Cyanopica cooki. Below you will find a list of 29 species I recognised in this five-minute excerpt.

Common Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus Santana do Mato, Coruche, Portugal, 07:45, 7 April 2021 (Magnus Robb). Song of an unpaired male. Background: Common Quail Coturnix coturnix, Common Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus, Eurasian Hoopoe Upupa epops, Great Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos major, Eurasian Golden Oriole Oriolus oriolus, Carrion Crow Corvus corone, Eurasian Blue Tit Cyanistes caeuleus, European Crested Tit Lophophanes cristatus, Woodlark Lullula arborea, Western Bonelli's Warbler Phylloscopus bonelli, Eurasian Nuthatch Sitta europaea, Short-toed Treecreeper Certhia brachydactyla, Eurasian Wren Nannus troglodytes, Spotless Starling Sturnus unicolor, Common Blackbird Turdus merula, Common Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos and Hawfinch Coccothraustes coccothraustes. 210407.MR.074534.22

Red-throated Bee-eaterMerops bullocki Mole National Park, Savannah Region, Ghana, 16 November 2019 (Dick Forsman).

Blue-cheeked Bee-eaterMerops persicus Sohar, Al Batinah, Oman, 14 April 2010 (René Pop).

Red-throated Bee-eaters Merops bulocki Mole National Park, Savannah region, Ghana, 09:33, 14 November 2019 (Magnus Robb). Excited calls of several individuals perched near a colony. Background: Red-eyed Dove Streptopelia semitorquata and Vinaceous Dove S vinacea. 191114.MR.093322.01

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater Merops persicus chrysocercus Derkaoua, Tafilalt, Morocco, 08:24, 30 March 2011 (Arnoud B van den Berg). Various calls by perched individuals. Background: House Sparrow Passer domesticus. 110330.AB.082400.21

European Bee-eaterMerops apiaster Sierra de Andujar, Jaén, Spain, 4 May 2012 (René Pop).

White-throated Bee-eater Merops albicollis Shai Hills, Ghana, 20 November 2019 (Dick Forsman).

European Bee-eater Merops apiaster Atanasovo Lake, Burgas, Bulgaria, 17:25, 21 September 2007 (Magnus Robb). Calls of a migrating flock.070921.MR.172552.01

White-throated Bee-eater Merops albicollis Mole National Park, Savannah region, Ghana, 09:33, 11 November 2019 (Magnus Robb). Calls of one or two migrating individuals. 191111.MR.093356.12

Red-legged Partridge, Pallid Swift, Common Swift, Little Ringed Plover, Spotted Redshank, White-throated Bee-eater, European Bee-eater, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Red-throated Bee-eater, Iberian Magpie, Carrion Crow, Eurasian Blue Tit, Great Tit, European Crested Tit, Cetti's Warbler, Long-tailed Tit, Western Bonelli's Warbler, Willow Warbler, Eurasian Blackcap, Eurasian Nuthatch, Short-toed Treecreeper, African Thrush, Rock Sparrow              , Tree Pipit, Hawfinch, European Greenfinch, Common Linnet, Glip Crossbill, Cirl Bunting.

Common RedstartPhoenicurus phoenicurus phoenicurus Jalman Meadows, Tuv Aimag, Mongolia, 26 May 2008 (René Pop).

In summary, the structure of Common Redstart song has a small diagnostic fanfare followed by a short stream of imitations. It is discontinuous with about nine songs per minute. If you don’t pay attention to the structure, it could sound like a Common Chaffinch, or due to the mimicry it might sound momentarily like every other bird it has met. Much of this also applies to Ehrenberg’s Redstart P p samamisicus, but you can’t rely on fanfares to identify it, and there is also a tiny little feature that it usually possesses, which is rare in Common Redstart.

 

Ehrenberg's Redstart P p samamisicus

As a musician I used to be in a group called Al Farabi, which played traditional music from various parts of the former Ottoman empire. Music of those traditions typically begins with an improvisation called a taksim, which can be anything from a few seconds to several minutes long. Well, if I may exaggerate slightly, Ehrenberg’s Redstart has a similar Oriental touch to its song.

Playing with stereotypes for a moment, while male Common Redstarts herald their dame with the same kind of fanfare each time, Ehrenberg's have a much greater variety of opening lines, perhaps one for each of the ladies in their harem. I don't know if they are actually any more polygamous than their western and northern counterparts, but their taksims are certainly more variable.

When I first heard Ehrenberg's Redstarts 20 years ago I noticed that a fanfare, more often than not, was missing. Here is the first male I recorded. Of the 21 songs in this recording, only six have what I would then have recognised as a fanfare at the start, resembling those of the nominate subspecies. By that I mean an assertive opening starting with a whistle, followed by a couple of notes of slightly harsher type. You can hear them at 0:46, 1:01, 1:14, 1:30, 1:45 and 2:28.

Unlike Common Redstart, around 20% of Ehrenberg's songs have mimicry of another bird as their opening, eg, Krüper's Nuthatch Sitta krueperi at 0:09 in the recording below. Other songs begin with a series of repeated notes, like a fanfare with the whistle left out. But if Common is your benchmark it may seem that a fanfare is almost always missing.

Ehrenberg's Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus samamisicus Soğuksu Milli Park, Kızılcahamam, Turkey, 9 May 2001 (Magnus Robb). Song of a male. Background: Eurasian Hoopoe Upupa epops, Mistle Thrush Turdus viscivorus, Great Tit Parus major, Krüper's Nuthatch Sitta krueperi, Short-toed Treecreeper Certhia brachydactyla, Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs and European Serin Serinus serinus. 01.018.MR.00248 & 00404.21

Another feature very typical of Ehrenberg's Redstart songs is that they frequently have a subtle, tiny low-pitched gruff chatter at the start of their strophes, present in this recording at 1:07, 1:51, 2:22 and 2:35. You can be forgiven for missing it. I hope so anyway, since it was only 20 years after hearing my first Ehrenberg's that this feature caught my attention. Ayé et al (2014), in a paper on Ehrenberg's vocalisations in British Birds, may have been talking about the same feature when they pointed out that "heavily modulated or vibrating introductory notes appear to be diagnostic". I did once hear something similar in a Common Redstart song from the UK, but I have not yet heard an Ehrenberg’s singing for any length of time that lacked it.

Let's listen now to Ehrenberg's Redstart from a different area, this time a picnic site beside a fountain in southern Turkey. Our second male also has the little gruff chatter preceding many of its strophes. You can hear it in the first three strophes starting at 0:01, 0:11, 0:22 and then 1:27 (just a hint), 1:40, 1:49, 2:10, 2:22, 2:42 and 2:56. The gruff chatter takes four different forms in this recording. As for the 'fanfares', here they tend to be fairly low-pitched and consist of 2-4 repetitions of a short, slightly buzzing note.

Ehrenberg's Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus samamisicus Cevisli, Akseki, Turkey, 07:48, 14 May 2014 (Mark Constantine). Song of a male. Background: Green Woodpecker Picus viridis, Eurasian Jay Garrulus glandarius, Eurasian Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus, Great Tit Parus major, Eastern Bonelli's Warbler Phylloscopus orientalis and Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs. 140514.MC.074800.02


Our third male is from northern Armenia. He has rather long gaps between strophes, probably because it was around lunchtime when I caught up with him, and he must have been singing since well before dawn. You can hear some gruff chatter preceding the strophes at 0:52 and 1:41. As for this bird's 'fanfares', they are typical Ehrenberg's: simple repetitions of a single short and rather low or medium-pitched note.

Ehrenberg's Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus samamisicus Dilijan, Tavush, Armenia, 2 May 2011 (Magnus Robb). Song of a male. Background: Eurasian Jay Garrulus glandarius imitating a Tawny Owl Strix aluco, Eurasian Coal Tit Periparus ater, Eurasian Wren Nannus troglodytes, Common Blackbird Turdus merula, Eurasian Bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula and European Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis. 110502.MR.125956.22


In mimicry, Ehrenberg's Redstart is just as accomplished as its western cousins, the choice of sounds reflecting its more easterly distribution. Ehrenberg's may imitate Red-breasted Flycatcher Ficedula parva (eg,at 2:05 in the recording above) or Common Rosefinch Erythrina erythrina (eg, 0:33) and our first male was notable for his mimicry of Krüper's Nuthatch. The nuthatch's distribution falls entirely within the breeding range of Ehrenberg's, so mimicry of this species might be considered diagnostic.


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