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Blyth's Reed Warbler

Blyth's Reed Warbler

Acrocephalus dumetorum

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Blyth's Reed Warbler is a slim, plain olive-brown Acrocephalus warbler that breeds from eastern and northern Europe across Siberia and winters in South Asia. Its understated look contrasts with a lively, varied song mixing harsh ticks and churrs with melodious whistles and mimicry. It favours scrubby thickets more than pure reedbeds and has been spreading westward in Europe.

Did you know?

  • Its song often weaves in mimicry of many other bird species alongside its own whistles and harsh notes.
  • Despite being a reed warbler, it usually nests in shrubs and damp thickets rather than in reeds.

Voice

Song
Call

About the species

Identification

Grey-brown with an olive tinge above and pale below, with a short pale supercilium and pale legs. It resembles Eurasian Reed Warbler and Marsh Warbler, but often shows a cooler, greyer tone and a relatively short primary projection. The song is unhurried, full of mimicry and distinct from the more frantic song of Marsh Warbler.

Family

Acrocephalidae

Size

Tiny (goldcrest)

Colours

brown, white, grey

About the habitat

Damp scrub, willow and birch thickets, overgrown field and marsh edges, woodland clearings and gullies, and shrubby parks and gardens. In winter it uses trees and bushes in both wet and dry habitats in South Asia.

Diet

Mainly small insects and other invertebrates such as beetles, flies, caterpillars and spiders, gleaned from leaves and stems; occasionally berries late in the season.

Behaviour

Skulks in dense vegetation, gleaning prey from foliage and sometimes making short sallies. Males sing their unhurried, mimicry-rich song from concealed perches, especially at dawn and at night. Pairs build a small cup nest low in vegetation; both parents incubate and feed the young, and while usually monogamous, polygyny also occurs.

Sources

Photo: Tisha Mukherjee, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blyth's Reed Warbler in Baruipur December 2024 by Tisha Mukherjee 02.jpg

Sound: Sander Pieterse, XC565995, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/565995

Sound: Sander Pieterse, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Acrocephalus_dumetorum_-_Blyth's_Reed_Warbler_XC565997.mp3

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blyth%27s_reed_warbler

See also