Editing European stonechat (section)

==Behaviour and ecology==
[[File:Saxicola rubicola 232 HdB Ouarsenis Algérie.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|right|Eggs]]
===Breeding===
European stonechats first breed when they are one year old. They are monogamous during the breeding season but do not pair for life. The nest is built entirely by the female and is placed in dense vegetation close to the ground. It is a loose unwoven cup of dried grass lined with hair and feathers. The eggs are laid in early morning at daily intervals. The clutch is typically 4–6 eggs, which are pale blue to greenish-blue with red-brown freckles that are more numerous at the larger end. The average size of an egg is {{convert|18.7|x|14.4|mm|in|abbr=on}} with a weight of {{convert|2.0|g|oz|abbr=on}}. They are incubated for 13–14 days by the female beginning after the last egg is laid. Both parents care for and feed the chicks. They are brooded by the female. The nestlings fledge 12–16 days after hatching but continue to be fed by both parents for a further 4–5 days after which the female begins building a new nest for another brood while the male continues to feed the young for another 5–10 days. The parents raise two or three broods in a season.<ref>{{ cite book | editor1-last=Cramp | editor1-first=Stanley | display-editors=etal | editor1-link=Stanley Cramp | year=1988 | chapter=''Saxicola torquata'' Stonechat | title=Handbook of the Birds of Europe the Middle East and North Africa. The Birds of the Western Palearctic | volume=V: Tyrant Flycatchers to Thrushes | location=Oxford | publisher=Oxford University Press | pages=737–751 | isbn=978-0-19-857508-5 }}</ref><ref>{{ cite journal | last=Johnson | first=E.D.H. | date=1971 | title=Observations on a resident population of Stonechats in Jersey | journal=British Birds | volume=64 | pages=[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48597547 201-213], [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48597627 267-279] }}<!--Better quality scan of first part available https://britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/article_files/V64/V64_N05/V64_N05_P201_213_A035.pdf --></ref>