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:

Easy to identify when seen in mountainous habitat where Rock Pipit does not occur, but harder when occasionally seen at the coast where both species may be present. Told from Rock Pipit by: Contrasting, double wing-bars, unstreaked belly (and only modestly streaked flanks), brownish rump, broad supercilium, paler underwing and pure white outer tail feathers. Summer plumage with more strongly coloured buff or pinkish underparts and greyer upperparts, but difficult to identify when plumage worn.

Sound:

Similar to Rock Pipit. Song slightly more melodious, often with Tree Pipit like glissandi at end of phrase. Contact call sharper and more drawn.

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:Betty van Middelkoop, Licence,Link.

CC-sound:Jarek Matusiak, Licence,Link.