Appearance:

An almost featureless, large warbler with greyish brown upperparts and buff underparts. Lack of distinct characters is a character! Most distinct character is probably the faint, slate grey half-collar. Vent has no markings, eye is dark and bill is relatively short. Body quite plump, and facial expression gentle and mild. Usually stays hidden in foliage. Lacks nervous behaviour of other Sylvia, and does not normally flick its tail and wings.

Sound:

Song: a full bodied, flowing, melodious stream of notes, distinguished by its almost constant, warbled quality and lack of clear whistling notes (see Blackcap). Tempo is fairly even. Beware confusion possibility with occasional subsong of Blackcap that never reaches the whistling part! Call a nasal "che". Alarm call a hard "check", and a hoarse "tcherr".

Song:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

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:Billy Lindblom, Licence,Link,

CC-photo:themadbirdlady, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:Martha de Jong-Lantink, Licence,Link.

Appearance:

Unmistakable. Extremely long tail and short wings. Fluttering and undulating flight, with peculiar silhouette like a small ball with a long tail. Head of Northern Europe sub.sp. completely white. Continental and British birds with broad, dark supercilium. Juveniles head dark with white crown and throat. Always active and on the move in small groups.

Sound:

Song: Rapid, continuous, randomly composed sequence of bubbling,chirping sounds. Call: quite short, chirping, twittering "tzzirrret tzirrrret". Often starting at high pitch and rapidly falling, or just flat. Also a thin, slightly falling "zi zi ziii".

Contact call:

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