bbc.co.uk navigation

Male whinchat perched on a bush

Chats

Chats are a small group of slender perching birds once thought to belong to the thrush family. However, they were found to be more closely related to the Old World flycatchers and have now been placed into that family. The 15 species are mostly insectivores and favour open grassland with scattered shrubs and bushes for cover. The whinchat and stonechat will be the most familiar species in the UK and a wider Europe. Island chat species, such as those found on Reunion and Madagascar, have smaller ranges.

Scientific name: Saxicola

Rank: Genus

Common names:

Stonechats

Distribution

Map showing the distribution of the Chats taxa

The shading illustrates the diversity of this group - the darker the colour the greater the number of species. Data provided by WWF's Wildfinder.

The Chats can be found in a number of locations including: Africa, Asia, Europe. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.

Explore this group

Whinchat
Whinchat Stonechat
Stonechat

Habitats

The following habitats are found across the Chats distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.

Temperate grassland Temperate grassland
Temperate grasslands include the prairies of North America, the steppes of Russia and the pampas of Argentina. Summers here are mild to hot and the winters can sometimes be very cold – for instance, blizzards can blanket the great plains of the United States.

Behaviours

Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.

Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web

About

Saxicola (Latin: saxum, rock + incola, dwelling in), the stonechats or chats, is a genus of 15 species of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World. They are insectivores occurring in open scrubland and grassland with scattered small shrubs.

Read more at Wikipedia

This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.

BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.