Sedge Warbler
The Sedge Warbler is a medium-sized Old World warbler in the genus Acrocephalus. It has a streaked brown back and wings and pale underparts. The rump is warm brown and unstreaked, contrasting with the duller wings. The forehead is flattened, there is a prominent whitish supercilium, the crown is streaked with black and the bill is strong and pointed. The plumage of the sexes is identical. Juvenile birds have dark spots on the breast.
The Sedge Warbler’s song is varied, rushed and chattering with sweeter phrases and some mimicry, all 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. Male Sedge Warblers commence singing only a few hours after arriving on their breeding territory. The song is given from a bare perch such as a reed stem or bush or from cover and during routine flights within their territory. Song flights are also performed. Whilst singing, the bird takes off, rises to a height of up to 10 feet and then after a short circling flight, it makes a slow, parachuting descent, often with the wings held up in a “v” shape. The song has the function of attracting a mate rather than keeping other males away and it is stopped as soon as a mate is found.
The Sedge Warbler has a large range and it breeds across Europe and western and central Asia. Unlike other members of the Acrocephalus genus, the Sedge Warbler's range stretches from the Arctic to mid-latitudes since it is adapted to live in cool, cloudy and moist conditions. It is a migratory species and winters 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 north Namibia. 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.
During the breeding season, the Sedge Warbler can be found in reedbeds, often with scrub, ditches and habitats away from water including hedgerows, patches of stinging nettles and arable crops. On the African wintering grounds, habitats such as reeds in wetlands, papyrus, grass, sedge and reedmace and tall elephant grass are used. Loss of wetland areas for feeding on migration and the expansion of the Sahara desert pose threats to the Sedge Warbler's breeding population.
The Sedge Warbler is mostly insectivorous and the diet includes mayflies, dragonflies and damselflies, grasshoppers, bugs, lacewings, moths, beetles and flies. Vegetable material includes elderberries and blackberries. On their wintering grounds food includes non-biting midges and flowers and berries. It feeds in low, thick vegetation, especially reeds and rushes, but also in arable fields and around bushes. Feeding techniques include picking insects from vegetation while perched or sometimes hovering and “leap-catching” where the bird grabs flying insects as it flies between perches. The Sedge Warbler tends to hop between plant stems and pick insects from underneath leaves and it takes advantage of the low temperatures around dusk and dawn which make their prey less mobile.
Date: 21st April 2021
Location: Rainham Marshes RSPB reserve, Essex
The Sedge Warbler’s song is varied, rushed and chattering with sweeter phrases and some mimicry, all 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. Male Sedge Warblers commence singing only a few hours after arriving on their breeding territory. The song is given from a bare perch such as a reed stem or bush or from cover and during routine flights within their territory. Song flights are also performed. Whilst singing, the bird takes off, rises to a height of up to 10 feet and then after a short circling flight, it makes a slow, parachuting descent, often with the wings held up in a “v” shape. The song has the function of attracting a mate rather than keeping other males away and it is stopped as soon as a mate is found.
The Sedge Warbler has a large range and it breeds across Europe and western and central Asia. Unlike other members of the Acrocephalus genus, the Sedge Warbler's range stretches from the Arctic to mid-latitudes since it is adapted to live in cool, cloudy and moist conditions. It is a migratory species and winters 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 north Namibia. 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.
During the breeding season, the Sedge Warbler can be found in reedbeds, often with scrub, ditches and habitats away from water including hedgerows, patches of stinging nettles and arable crops. On the African wintering grounds, habitats such as reeds in wetlands, papyrus, grass, sedge and reedmace and tall elephant grass are used. Loss of wetland areas for feeding on migration and the expansion of the Sahara desert pose threats to the Sedge Warbler's breeding population.
The Sedge Warbler is mostly insectivorous and the diet includes mayflies, dragonflies and damselflies, grasshoppers, bugs, lacewings, moths, beetles and flies. Vegetable material includes elderberries and blackberries. On their wintering grounds food includes non-biting midges and flowers and berries. It feeds in low, thick vegetation, especially reeds and rushes, but also in arable fields and around bushes. Feeding techniques include picking insects from vegetation while perched or sometimes hovering and “leap-catching” where the bird grabs flying insects as it flies between perches. The Sedge Warbler tends to hop between plant stems and pick insects from underneath leaves and it takes advantage of the low temperatures around dusk and dawn which make their prey less mobile.
Date: 21st April 2021
Location: Rainham Marshes RSPB reserve, Essex
|
Also in: Warblers
 |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |