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Cetti's Warbler

Cetti's Warbler

Cettia cetti

Identify the Cetti's Warbler by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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Cetti's Warbler is a small, warm-brown warbler of dense, damp thickets, far more often heard than seen. It is widespread from southern and western Europe and north-west Africa east to Central Asia and Afghanistan and has spread northward in Europe. It announces itself with a sudden, loud, explosive song from cover. The species is named after the Italian zoologist Francesco Cetti.

Did you know?

  • Unusually for a songbird, it has only ten tail feathers instead of twelve.
  • Its eggs are a distinctive brick-red colour.

Voice

Song
Call

About the species

Identification

A stocky, dark rufous-brown warbler with greyish underparts, a short pale supercilium and a broad, rounded tail often cocked. The sexes look alike, but males are clearly larger. Usually identified by its explosive “chetti-chetti-chetti” song.

Family

Cettiidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

brown, grey, white

About the habitat

Dense, shrubby vegetation in damp places – scrub and reedy margins of ponds, lakes, marshes and rivers.

Diet

Mainly small insects, spiders and larvae, gleaned from low vegetation.

Behaviour

A skulking, secretive bird that keeps low in thick cover and bursts into loud, ringing song, even in winter. Largely resident. Males may have several mates, while females build the nest, incubate and do most of the chick-rearing; the young fledge in about two weeks.

Sources

Photo: Mark S Jobling, CC BY 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:37-090505-cettis-warbler-at-Kalloni-east-river.jpg

Sound: Joost van Bruggen, XC432284, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/432284

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC707331, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/707331

Text: Wikipedia (English), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetti%27s_warbler

See also