Chats

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Like the closely related thrushes, among the chats can be found some of our best songsters, including the greatest of them all, the nightingale.

The group also contains two of our most familiar resident birds, the robin and wren, both of which sing readily.

Other members of this group are less familiar. A few wheatear and common redstart breed in Essex, but are more likely to be seen on passage in spring or autumn.

Stonechats breed mainly in the south of Essex, along the Thames estuary, while whinchats are principally passage migrants.