Black redstart
Phoenicurus ochruros
— Where the name comes from
Phoenicurus joins the Greek phoînix, “crimson”, and ourá, “tail”: the red tail that quivers constantly. Ochruros repeats “tail”, with ōchrós, “pale yellow, ochre”. The Italian spazzacamino, “chimney sweep”, describes the male, sooty grey and black, often perched right on the chimney pots.
— Facts
- Group
- Birds · Aves
- Order
- Passerines
- Habitat
- Mountain cliffs, villages, towns, industrial sites
- Range
- Europe, North Africa, Asia to China
- Size
- 13–14 cm, 14–20 g
- Diet
- Insects, spiders, berries
- Lifespan
- A few years, about 10 the record
— Characteristics
- 01
It quivers its red tail almost without pause.
- 02
Its song has an ending that sounds like a handful of broken glass.
- 03
It nests in cracks in walls, under roofs and gutters.
— What sets it apart
It was a bird of high-altitude rocks, and discovered that buildings are rocks. Today it lives among chimneys, sheds and stations. In England, where it had barely nested before, its colonisation has a precise date: during and after the Second World War it settled in the ruins of the London bombing, among collapsed walls and weeds, and for years the redstarts of the bombed areas were a small symbol of rebirth. When the ruins were rebuilt, it moved to power stations and industrial sites.
