Redstart Call MP3s
A ready-to-use recording of the Common Redstart's song and calls, useful for spring arrival monitoring and identification.
Also known as
Recordings (4)
About this species
The Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) is a passerine songbird of around 14 cm — the male grey-backed and black-faced with a constantly quivering rusty-orange tail. It favours open woodland, parkland and large gardens with scattered tall trees.
The male's short, scratchy warble, often mixing in mimicry, is sung from a high perch. It darts out to flycatch insects and drops to the ground for beetles and caterpillars. It perches upright with a constantly quivering tail, darting after passing insects. Its voice is woven into the soundscape of the European countryside through spring and summer.
Legal use
The Common Redstart is a migratory songbird protected under the EU Birds Directive, the UK Wildlife and Countryside Act, and equivalent national laws across its European breeding range, and it is not a legally hunted game species anywhere. It is IUCN Least Concern globally but Amber-listed in parts of Europe due to regional declines, and like many small migrants it can be caught incidentally in illegal trapping along Mediterranean flyways — that activity is unlawful poaching, not regulated hunting. This recording is intended for birdwatching, identification, and research use, such as tracking spring arrivals on breeding territory. Because rules on recordings and protected-species disturbance differ by country, please check our full country-by-country disclaimer before field use.