- a small Old World thrush, Saxicola rubetra, having a buff-colored breast and white streaks in the tail.
Origin of whinchat
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for whinchat
It is difficult to put oneself in the place of the Stonechat or of the Whinchat.Territory in Bird Life
H. Eliot Howard
The furze-chat, mentioned by C. Brown, is the Saxicola rubetra, commonly also called the whinchat.
Mr Harvie Brown saw it at Aultbea in 1884, more abundantly than the whinchat.Gairloch In North-West Ross-Shire
John H. Dixon, F.S.A. Scot
The Whinchat may be distinguished at a considerable distance by the white streak over the eye.British Birds in their Haunts
Rev. C. A. Johns
Some greenfinches, a whinchat or two, almost no pipits or larks, and very few sparrows.The Naturalist on the Thames
C. J. Cornish
- an Old World songbird, Saxicola rubetra, having a mottled brown-and-white plumage with pale cream underparts: subfamily Turdinae (thrushes)
C17: from whin 1 + chat 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012