Grasshopper Warbler (Locustella naevia)
Dundalk, Co.Louth 22-05-2021
Scientific classification
Domain:Eukaryota
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Passeriformes
Family:Locustellidae
Genus:Locustella
Species:L. naevia
Binomial name
Locustella naevia
Family: Warblers
Conservation status: Red
Measurements
Length: 12.5cm to 13.5cm
Wingspan: 15cm to 19cm
Weight: 11g to 16g
Extremely skulky warbler. Plumage dark gray-brown overall with wide black streaks on back; also note long undertail coverts with big dark centers. Favors damp grassy thickets, heaths, and other rank shrubby habitats, often near water. Very skulking, and rarely seen unless singing. Sings from perch in grass or low bush, mainly late in the day (sometimes at night): a prolonged, insectlike, reeling trill. Calls include a high-pitched “pik.”
Grasshopper warblers are rather indistinctive medium-sized brown warblers. Their lack of notable markings serves them well, allowing them to remain hidden in undergrowth, and to skulk in reedbeds without being detected.
As is usually the case for warblers, there is no difference in appearance between males and females. Adult grasshopper warblers are olive-brown, streaked with darker brown.
Their underparts are creamy-brown and mottled with dark spotting on parts of the breast and flanks. Their reddish brown tail is streaked with darker grey-brown markings. They have a faint lighter eye stripe, and the rest of their face is mostly pale grey.
Young grasshopper warblers resemble adults, but their underparts are slightly more yellow.
During the breeding season, grasshopper warblers head for scrublands, sedge, reedbeds and marshes. They are also attracted by the cover offered by bramble and nettle beds, moorlands, and the fringes of grazing fields.
Wintering habitats include bushy grasslands, woodland undergrowth, low-lying floodland, rice fields and scrubland.
Grasshopper warblers breed across Europe, from Britain and Ireland, southern Scandinavia and Finland in the north, as far south as the Alps, northern Spain and Portugal. To the east, the range extends across eastern Europe into Russia, reaching north-west China and much of central Asia.
Less is known about the wintering grounds of the grasshopper warbler, but the species is confirmed in isolated patches of West Africa, including Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone and Ghana, as well as parts of Ethiopia and India.
Grasshopper Warbler (Locustella naevia)
Dundalk, Co.Louth 22-05-2021
Scientific classification
Domain:Eukaryota
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Passeriformes
Family:Locustellidae
Genus:Locustella
Species:L. naevia
Binomial name
Locustella naevia
Family: Warblers
Conservation status: Red
Measurements
Length: 12.5cm to 13.5cm
Wingspan: 15cm to 19cm
Weight: 11g to 16g
Extremely skulky warbler. Plumage dark gray-brown overall with wide black streaks on back; also note long undertail coverts with big dark centers. Favors damp grassy thickets, heaths, and other rank shrubby habitats, often near water. Very skulking, and rarely seen unless singing. Sings from perch in grass or low bush, mainly late in the day (sometimes at night): a prolonged, insectlike, reeling trill. Calls include a high-pitched “pik.”
Grasshopper warblers are rather indistinctive medium-sized brown warblers. Their lack of notable markings serves them well, allowing them to remain hidden in undergrowth, and to skulk in reedbeds without being detected.
As is usually the case for warblers, there is no difference in appearance between males and females. Adult grasshopper warblers are olive-brown, streaked with darker brown.
Their underparts are creamy-brown and mottled with dark spotting on parts of the breast and flanks. Their reddish brown tail is streaked with darker grey-brown markings. They have a faint lighter eye stripe, and the rest of their face is mostly pale grey.
Young grasshopper warblers resemble adults, but their underparts are slightly more yellow.
During the breeding season, grasshopper warblers head for scrublands, sedge, reedbeds and marshes. They are also attracted by the cover offered by bramble and nettle beds, moorlands, and the fringes of grazing fields.
Wintering habitats include bushy grasslands, woodland undergrowth, low-lying floodland, rice fields and scrubland.
Grasshopper warblers breed across Europe, from Britain and Ireland, southern Scandinavia and Finland in the north, as far south as the Alps, northern Spain and Portugal. To the east, the range extends across eastern Europe into Russia, reaching north-west China and much of central Asia.
Less is known about the wintering grounds of the grasshopper warbler, but the species is confirmed in isolated patches of West Africa, including Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone and Ghana, as well as parts of Ethiopia and India.