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Savi's Warbler (Locustella luscinioides) — photo 1 of 3
© Sgbeer CC BY-SA 4.0

Grassbirds · Perching birds

Savi's Warbler

Locustella luscinioides

Summer visitor

Voice

Song

Camille Vacher

0:12

Call

Sonothèque ADVL

0:16

Song

Sonothèque ADVL

0:09

How to recognize it

  • 14 cm, sparrow-sized

  • Plain brown upperparts, no pattern

  • Whitish-grey to sandy underparts, weak short eyebrow

  • Usually hidden in reeds; song a deep, fast reel, often with low ticks

About the species

Savi's Warbler keeps to thick reed beds, so you usually hear it before you see it. It slips up through the stems and sings from the tops of reeds, where it can stay in the open for a while.

Its song is a steady, mechanical trill, often starting with a few soft ticks. The sound is deeper and shorter than the grasshopper warbler’s, and it often comes at dusk. When alarmed, it gives a short call and drops back into cover.

It lives in marshes, lagoons, and other wet places with reeds, sedges, and a few bushes. It feeds on insects, and in winter it moves to northern and sub-Saharan Africa.

Where to find

  • Along reed-fringed pond and canal edges — listen for the male’s low, fast reeling from the top of a reed stem, especially at dawn.

  • In marshy lake margins with old reeds and a few bushes — it often climbs up the stems to sing, then drops back into cover.

  • At quiet backwaters and wet hollows with dense sedges — more often heard than seen, with brief alarm ticks from deep in the reeds.

  • By overgrown shoreline patches in late spring — watch for a quick hop from stem to stem after a short, insect-like trill.

You might also see

Sources