Appearance:

Medium small Sylvia with short tail, slender body and steep forehead. Bill slim,fairly short and pointed. Male with rufous breast and conspicuous, broad, white moustache stripes. Upperparts lead grey. Female with slightly more brownish upperparts and buff white below. Immature birds has greyish brown upperparts, and are prone to confusion with Spectacled Warbler due to broad, brown fringes of tertials. The colour is however less rufous, and the dark centre ends in a rounded, not pointed tip. Pale legs in all sexes and ages, but some variation. Eye-ring colour variable, but generally red in male and very pale in female and immature (rules out other Sylvia except Tristram and Sardinian). Colour of upperparts more uniform than in confusion species in both male and female. May cock tail, but does not keep it raised like Dartford Warbler. Taxonomy much discussed. Western Italian population now accepted as a separate species (Moltoni's Warbler, S. subalpina), while S. c. inornata has species status in Svensson, but not in Clements (2018) .

Sound:

Alarm call a short, hard "tuk", but softer and fainter than Blackcap and Sardinian W. Song a rapid, vivid stream of squeaks and clearer notes, with timbre similar to Whitethroat. May be confused with Sardinian W., but lacks that species interwoven hard and rolling contact call.

Alarm, song:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

CC-photo:adrien2008, Licence,Link.

CC-Photo:Jeroen Veeken, Licence,Link.

CC-Photo:Koen Maes, Licence,Link.

Appearance:

Large and bulky Sylvia-warbler, with grey upperparts, and white to cream underparts. Adult males easily distinguished at close range, by barred underparts and yellow iris. Eye darker in females and young males. Pale, or white fringes to coverts and tertials evident in most plumages, but may be faint in young birds. Tail-corners white, and under tail-coverts always spotted. Most plumage characters difficult to see at a distance, and the general bulky and long-tailed impression of the bird, together with the white tail-corners seen in flight, are more useful for ID. Sometimes resembles more a shrike than a warbler, especially in flight.

Sound:

Varied repertoire, but mostly silent when not breeding. Contact call a rolling, dry "trrrrrrrrr-r-r-t, often with ritardando ending, of 1-2 seconds length. Also a Blackcap-like "check". Song varies among individuals and location, but is generally quite similar to Garden Warbler. Often contains mimicry of Red-backed Shrike, and other species. Phrases usually quite short, with rapid alternations between sequences of squeaky, high-pitched sounds and warbling, fluty (often disyllabic) notes. This creates a slightly bouncing rhythm, different from Garden Warbler. Sometimes includes contact call in song, which makes ID easier.

Contact call/song:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC