Male Whinchat use perching areas to perform their song. In addition to bushes and fence posts, thicker overhanging plants are also readily accepted, such as a wild chervil (Anthriscus sylvestris) shown here.

Whinchat females are less brightly coloured than the males. As a rule, the females are responsible for building the nest and incubating the eggs. When meadows are mown early, clutches of eggs are often mown along with the breeding female.

The Whinchat depends on open, insect-rich and late-mown flower meadows.

The Whinchat breeds on the ground in extensively utilised meadows. The eggs and young birds are particularly vulnerable until they fledge.

Fledgling on a great yellow gentian (Gentiana lutea).

In certain regions of the Alps, Whinchats also colonise pastures and slopes interspersed with dwarf shrubs at the tree line and in the knee timber zone.

Irrigation and the intensification and early mowing of meadows or grazing of pastures that this involves is reaching mountain areas, too. This means that Whinchat populations at higher altitudes are also under pressure.

The meadow breeder exhibition – offered in the project regions and other areas with large populations of meadow breeders – is one of the tools used to raise awareness amongst the general public of whinchats.