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Sedge Warbler/Ceolaire cíbe (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus)

Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide 2nd Edition with Jim Wilson.

www.markcarmodyphotography.com

 

The Sedge Warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus) is an Old World warbler in the genus Acrocephalus. It is a medium-sized warbler with a brown, streaked back and wings and a distinct pale supercilium. Sedge Warblers are migratory, crossing the Sahara to get from their European and Asian breeding grounds to spend winter in Africa. The male's song is composed of random chattering phrases and can include mimicry of other species. The Sedge Warbler is mostly insectivorous.

 

The song is varied, rushed and chattering, with sweeter phrases and some mimicry, typical of the Acrocephalus warblers. It is composed of phrases in random order, so that it is never the same. Male Sedge Warblers which have the widest repertoire mate with the largest number of females.

 

All Sedge Warblers spend winter in sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east, and as far south as the eastern Cape Province of South Africa and northern Namibia. The route taken on the southward migration, and eventual wintering grounds, correspond to the birds' breeding grounds. Birds ringed in the United Kingdom and Netherlands are later found from south-west Iberia to Italy; birds from Sweden are recovered in central Europe and Italy; while Finnish birds are found in north-east Italy and Malta east to the Aegean region. Sedge Warblers from the former Soviet Union take routes via the eastern Mediterranean Sea and Middle East. Loss of wetland areas for feeding on migration, and the expansion of the Sahara desert, pose threats to the Sedge Warbler's breeding population. Birds begin leaving Africa in late February, fatten up at wetlands before and probably after crossing the Sahara, and arrive in Europe from March onwards. (wikipedia)

 

The reed beds and surrounding hedgerows in Pollardstown Fen, Co. Kildare, were full of Sedge Warbler recently when I stopped in on my way back to Dublin from Cork. Fantastic to see and hear so many.

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Uploaded on June 29, 2024
Taken on May 10, 2024