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Barred Warbler

Barred Warbler

Curruca nisoria

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The Barred Warbler is the largest Curruca warbler, a robust, grey-and-white bird of thickets and hedgerows that breeds from central and eastern Europe into western and Central Asia and winters in eastern Africa. Adult males show bold dark barring below and a staring yellow eye; females are paler with finer barring, and juveniles are buffy and faintly barred, recalling a Garden Warbler.

Did you know?

  • Its scientific name, nisoria, comes from medieval Latin for the Sparrowhawk, after its barred underparts.
  • It is the largest warbler in the genus Curruca.

Voice

Song
Alarm call

About the species

Identification

A large warbler; adults are dark grey above and pale below with dense dark bars, a yellow eye and white tips to the tail feathers. Young birds resemble a Garden Warbler but are larger, with pale bars on the wings and dark barring on the undertail coverts.

Family

Sylviidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

grey, white, brown, black, yellow

About the habitat

Dense thorny scrub, hedgerows, juniper and woodland edges, especially with blackthorn or hawthorn.

Diet

Mainly insects and other invertebrates such as beetles, caterpillars and spiders; berries and other soft fruit in late summer and autumn.

Behaviour

Usually skulks in dense shrubs but may forage openly in berry-laden bushes; often flicks its long tail. Its song is a chattering warble, harsher than a Garden Warbler's, often delivered in a short song flight, and it gives rattling alarm calls. It nests low in thorny scrub, often near Red-backed Shrikes.

Sources

Photo: Christoph Moning, CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Curruca nisoria 378155893 (cropped).jpg

Sound: Jochem Verweij, XC910640, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/910640

Sound: Jochem Verweij, XC903882, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/903882

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barred_warbler

See also