Acrocephalus schoenobaenus
The Sedge Warbler, *Acrocephalus schoenobaenus*, is a small, streaky, cryptic Old World warbler, a quintessential member of the family Acrocephalidae. Measuring approximately 11.5-13 cm in length with a wingspan of 17-21 cm and weighing 10-15 grams, its plumage is characterized by a streaky brown back, pale underparts, and a particularly striking, long creamy supercilium (eyebrow stripe) that contrasts sharply with its dark crown and eye-stripe, serving as its most distinctive field mark. The...
Primarily inhabits dense, low-lying vegetation in wetlands, such as sedge beds, reedbeds, damp meadows, and waterside scrub, typically found in lowland areas up to around 1000 meters.
Primarily insectivorous, feeding on a wide variety of insects such as flies, beetles, moths, caterpillars, and spiders, supplemented with small berries in late summer and autumn. They forage by gleaning invertebrates from vegetation and occasionally making short aerial pursuits.
Sedge Warblers are diurnal, though notoriously secretive, often skulking low in dense vegetation; however, males become conspicuously vocal during the breeding season, performing elaborate 'song flights' where they ascend briefly before parachuting back down. They are insectivorous foragers, glea...
The Sedge Warbler boasts an expansive breeding range across the Palearctic, stretching from Ireland and Great Britain eastward across much of Europe and temperate Asia, reaching as far as central Siberia. Its breeding limits extend north into Fennoscandia and south to northern Spain, Italy, and t...
Least Concern
- The Sedge Warbler is a master mimic, capable of incorporating the calls and songs of over 70 different bird species into its own complex and improvisational song. - Despite its small size (weighing only about 10-15 grams), it undertakes one of the longest annual migrations of any European passe...