Northern Wheatear

A white flash across open ground

The Northern Wheatear hops and bobs over short grass and stony ground. The male in spring is grey, black and buff, with a black mask, and as it flies off it shows the bright white rump the bird is named for.

For its size it travels astonishingly far. Birds breeding as far away as Greenland and Arctic Canada spend the winter in Africa, and on migration they stop to rest on dunes, dikes and open fields.