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The UK Bird Atlas

Lesser Whitethroat (Curruca curruca)Where and when to see it in the UK

Status not yet classified · reporting peaks May · Sylviid Warblers and Allies · BOU category AF

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Lesser Whitethroat (Curruca curruca)
peterichman, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Lesser Whitethroat: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Lesser Whitethroat has been recorded in 1,414 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (48%) in records to 2026. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in May.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
16% or more of visits
High
6% to 16%
Moderate
2% to 6%
Low
under 2%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 0%<1%Very high
February 0%<1%Very high
March 0%<1%Very high
April 56%4%Very high
May 100%8%Very high
June 48%4%Very high
July 21%2%Low
August 47%4%Low
September 40%3%Low
October 10%<1%Low
November 0%<1%Very high
December 0%<1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in May

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HU25Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HU43Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HU47Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
NC80Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NK13Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NK14Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NN32Stirling, Scotland100%Very high
NO41Fife, Scotland100%Very high
NO50Fife, Scotland100%Very high
NS21South Ayrshire, Scotland100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.