Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) shares with the thrush, a resident of our forests, hedgerows, parks and gardens, a common name and size, and by kinship it is closer to the nightingale, with ornithologists placing them in the same genus (Luscinia). When stretched, the bluethroat would measure between 13 and 14 cm. The bluethroat is a fairly slender and small bird with long, thin legs. The most noticeable feature of adult birds is actually the broad whitish ’eyebrow’—a stripe that runs above the eye from the thin black bill toward the crown of the head. The name of this species was given for the celestial blue of the throat and chest, which below is emphasized by a black crescent-shaped stripe. This, through a whitish semicircular line and a rusty-red belt of crescent shape, passes into a dirty white ventral side. The blue coloration is much more extensive and pronounced in the male, while the pattern on the female's throat is quite variable and the blue sometimes is not noticeable at all. In fact, the entire dorsal side, from the head to the tail, is brownish gray. Only the tail stands out from the gray, being black on top and having a brownish-red base, which is well visible especially in flight. Young birds are finely speckled, similar to thrush juveniles, but they already have a black and reddish-brown tail.
Poznavalci ločijo tri podvrste glede na to ali moder ’slinček’ krasi bela ali rdeča lisa ali pa je modrina sklenjena. Podvrste imajo tudi različna območja razširjenosti, torej areale.
Experts distinguish three subspecies depending on whether the blue ’bib’ is adorned with a white or red stripe or whether the blue is enclosed. Subspecies also have different ranges, i.e., areas.
Oblika kljuna nakazuje, da se modra taščica hrani pretežno z žuželkami in podobnimi nevretenčarji, ki jih z ozkim koničastim kljunom spretno pobira s stebelc in z listov ali pa jih izbrska izpod suhega listja. Redko žuželke lovi tudi v zraku, včasih se loti še kakšnega polža ali deževnika, pozimi pa se hrani s semeni in sadjem.
The shape of the beak indicates that the bluethroat feeds mainly on insects and similar invertebrates, which it skillfully picks from stems and leaves with its slender pointed bill, or forages for them from beneath dry leaves. It rarely hunts insects in the air; sometimes it also takes a snail or an earthworm, and in winter it feeds on seeds and fruit.
Modra taščica je plaha in nekoliko skrivnostna ptica, ki se večino časa drži v gostem rastju. Pri nas jo bomo lahko opazili le na preletu, ko se seli na ali z območij prezimovanja. Zimo prebije na jugu Iberskega polotoka, v severni Afriki, na Arabskem polotoku in v nekaterih delih Azije. Gnezdi med majem in julijem; zlasti na severu, v Skandinaviji in Sibiriji, v Aziji vse do Himalaje, pa tudi na posameznih območjih v srednji in zahodni Evropi ter ob Črnem morju. Globoko skodeličasto gnezdo iz vejic, travnih bilk in mahu navadno zgradi samica. Postelje ga z živalsko dlako in ga skrije v šopu trave ali v grmovju, najraje v vrbovju na namočenih tleh.
The bluethroat is a shy and somewhat secretive bird that spends most of its time hidden in dense vegetation. In our country we can observe it only during migration, when it passes to or from its wintering areas. It winters to the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in North Africa, on the Arabian Peninsula, and in some parts of Asia. It nests between May and July; especially in the north, in Scandinavia and Siberia, in Asia all the way to the Himalayas, as well as in certain areas in central and western Europe and along the Black Sea. The deeply cup-shaped nest made of twigs, grasses and moss is usually built by the female. She lines it with animal hair and hides it in a tuft of grass or in a shrub, preferably in willow thickets on damp ground.
