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Saxicola rubetra
This is a small Old World flycatcher, slightly smaller than a sparrow. Pictured here is male, in its nuptial attire, recognized by that black face mask, two cream-whitish facial horizontal strips and that orange-buff throat and chest. Upperparts are brownish and mottled, belly is pale buff to whitish belly, and the tail is a blackish.
This spring I saw these beauties regularly - one or two of them came regularly to feast on exposed insects after the grass and flowers were cut (against my wishes...) on terraces in our garden. Located at outskirts of Dubrovnik, on lower slopes of Srdj mountain, the garden is terraced and covered in Mediterranean fruit trees and spontaneous vegetation. In spring, these terraces are overgrown in beautiful dense carpet of spontaneous Mediterranean herbs and melliferous flowers.
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