Reed warblers · Perching birds
Booted Warbler
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Iduna caligata
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Voice
Song
Jochem Verweij
How to recognize it
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Smaller than a sparrow
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Plain grey-brown above, paler below
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Clear pale eyebrow, short bill with dark tip
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Rather pot-bellied, square-tipped tail
About the species
The Booted Warbler is a small, plain warbler that can look almost anonymous at first glance. It has brown-grey upperparts, a paler underside, and a narrow bill with a dark tip.
It keeps to cover and is more often heard than seen. Its voice is a stream of low, murmured notes, and during the breeding season it builds a cup-shaped nest close to the ground among dense growth.
It breeds across eastern Europe and western Asia, then moves south for winter to the Indian subcontinent. It lives in bushy meadows, woodland edges, clearings, and thickets, and feeds mainly on insects.
Where to find
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On weedy, bushy meadows and vacant lots near water — keep an eye on the grass edge, where Booted Warbler slips low through cover and gives away its presence with a soft, nonstop babble from the shrubs.
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In young tree plantings, clearings, and scrubby woodland — especially where the undergrowth is dense, it shows up in short flights from the lower layer back into the thicket.
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Along willow and meadowsweet tangles by a canal or pond — often singing from very low down instead of from the treetops.
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On rough field edges with tall grass and a few scattered bushes — it hunts insects just above the ground, then drops back into cover.
You might also see
Sources
- eBird — Iduna caligata Sightings map and full description on eBird
- Wikipedia — Booted warbler Encyclopedia article