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Garden Warbler

Garden Warbler

Sylvia borin

Identify the Garden Warbler by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Garden Warbler is a plain, brown warbler that breeds across most of Europe into western Siberia and winters in Africa south of the Sahara. Despite its name it rarely lives in gardens, preferring dense scrub and woodland edges. It is best known for its rich, flowing song, which is easily confused with the Blackcap's. Its breeding range has been expanding northwards.

Did you know?

  • Despite its name, it rarely lives in gardens.
  • Its song is very like the Blackcap's but longer and more even.

Voice

Song
Alarm call

About the species

Identification

A smallish, evenly greyish-brown warbler with paler underparts; the sides of the neck often have a faint grey tinge, and the legs are fairly sturdy and grey. Its key feature is the absence of striking marks. The song is a clear, bubbling warble without the Blackcap's fluty ending; the call and alarm is a smacking “chek-chek”. It behaves inconspicuously, hiding in foliage.

Family

Sylviidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

brown, grey, white

About the habitat

Dense shrubs and thickets, young deciduous woodland, forest edges, clearings and hedgerows, and well-vegetated parks with plenty of undergrowth.

Diet

Insects and other invertebrates in spring and summer; before migration it gorges on fruit such as elderberries, currants and figs to build up fat.

Behaviour

A secretive bird that forages in dense foliage and sings long, even, bubbling phrases from cover. It builds a neat cup nest low in shrubs, and both parents feed the young. It competes with Blackcaps for territories and is a host of the Common Cuckoo. It migrates at night.

Sources

Photo: Biillyboy, CC BY 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sylvia borin (Örebro County).jpg

Sound: Kalle Nibbenhagen, XC915281, CC BY 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/915281

Sound: Benoît Van Hecke, XC797945, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/797945

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

See also