stonechat

American  

[stohn-chat] / ˈstoʊnˌtʃæt /

noun

1. any of several small Old World birds, especially of the genus Saxicola, as S. torquata.

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stonechat British  

/ ˈstəʊnˌtʃæt /

noun

1. an Old World songbird, Saxicola torquata, having a black plumage with a reddish-brown breast: subfamily Turdinae (thrushes)

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Etymology

Origin of stonechat

1775–85; stone + chat, so called from its warning cry which sounds like a clash of stones

Example Sentences

"The ground nesting birds, like the skylarks and the meadow pipits, the wrens and stonechats, they'll have lost their nests and eggs."

From BBC

But then suddenly, Graeme's efforts pay off as we sight a stonechat, the feathered fiend who had evaded us earlier, sitting happily atop a fence post.

From BBC

Land-sparing urban areas are breeding grounds for birds that lay many eggs, use open nests more frequently, and have short life cycles, such as stonechats, chiffchaffs and crested larks.

From Science Daily

Ornithologist Barbara Hall from the University of Groningen and her colleagues, for example, studied European stonechats, small songbirds that they caught and then bred in captivity.

From Science Magazine

The stonechat is “the very acme of alertness.”

From New York Times