The white-throated dipper was described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Sturnus cinclus.

[3] The name cinclus is from the Ancient Greek word kinklos that was used to describe small tail-wagging birds that resided near water.

[5] There are 14 subspecies of which one is now extinct (with †):[6] The white-throated dipper is about 18 centimetres (7.1 in) long, rotund and short tailed.

The throat and upper breast are white, followed by a band of warm chestnut which merges into black on the belly and flanks.

During courtship the male sings whilst he runs and postures, exhibiting his snowy breast, and when displaying he will take long and high flights, like those of the common kingfisher, accompanied by sharp metallic calls clink, clink, different from the normal zil.

It often perches bobbing spasmodically with its short tail uplifted on the rocks round which the water swirls and tumbles.

It holds itself down by muscular exertion, with its head well down and its body oblique, its course beneath the surface often revealed by a line of rising bubbles.

When the swift hill streams are frozen, it is forced to descend to the lowlands and even visit the coasts, but some will remain if there is any open water.

The maximum recorded age of a white-throated dipper from ring-recovery data is 10 years and 7 months for a bird ringed in Finland.

[17] Gerald, a keen observer of wildlife, describes the dipper accurately, but with his notorious tendency to believe anything he was told, which so often detracts from the value of his work,[18] states that it was an aberrant variety of the common kingfisher.