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17

Wood Warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix) German name(s): "Waldlaubsänger" Size: 11-12.5 cm; wing span 19.5-24 cm Weight: 6-15 g

Europe: Family Group 17 Family Group 17 Table Dunnock Alpine Accentor Goldcrest Common Firecrest Eurasian Wren Willow Warbler Common Chiffchaff Iberian Chiffchaff Wood Warbler Western Bonelli's Warbler Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names European birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Wood Warblers are very small leaf warblers. Overall, their plumage is dominated by olive, grey and yellowish hues. The front, from the chest down, is off-white to light-grey, while the throat and the upper sides are sulphur-yellow to pale-yellow. The crown, nape of the neck, back, rump and upperwing coverts are olive-grey. The flight feathers are dark-grey with narrow olive leading edges. They have yellow supercilia, cheeks and ear coverts, with prominent dark olive-grey eye stripes that end in a dark "hook" at the back of the ear coverts. Their wings have characteristic bright inner edge lining that other, similar species lack and their primary projection is the longest of all similar species. The irises are dark. The bill has a grey upper mandible and a horn-coloured lower mandible. The legs and feet are pale pinkish-grey. Twitcher's tip Compared to Common Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers, Wood Warblers have more sulphur-yellow on the chin and the sides of the head and a longer primary wing projection (see photo). They also have off-white inner edges on the wing feathers that the other species lack. Direct comparison of primary projection of Common Chiffchaff (top), Willow Warbler (centre) and Wood Warbler (bottom)

Taxonomy, classification See Wood Warbler at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed based on sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to the ebird.org website. The global distribution of the Wood Warbler is available HERE . Wood Warblers are a strongly migratory species. They breed in parts of Europe, to the southern Urals in the far South-east of their range. They all spend the northern winters in sub-Saharan tropical Africa. During their migration they can be found anywhere between their breeding grounds and winter grounds, except most of the Sahara desert, western Iberia, parts of eastern Asia Minor and parts of the far South-east of Europe, to the North of the Caspian Sea. In Europe Wood Warblers are found only as breeding migrants. Their range extends from most of France (except the far southern Mediterranean fringe), the British Isles (but only rarely Ireland) in the West to European Russia in the East. They are found in the Appennin Mountains in Italy and parts of the Balkans and basically anywhere to the North of the Alps and of the Danube River, up to the near-coastal fringe of southern to central Scandinavia, up to about the polar circle. Wood Warblers have a preference for mature, dense forest and woodland, often with decidious trees, but also mixed with conifers. Usually they prefer forest with little undergrowth. Hence their distribution in Europe is limited to the densely wooded regions within the range outlined above.

Sightings Click here for sighting information D. Wilczynska reports spotting a Wood Warbler at Biebrza National Park, Poland, in May 2017. All sighting, photographic and audio information presented on this page has kindly been contributed by D. Wilczynska.

Photos

ADULT

Sex unknown

Frontal view of a Wood Warbler; note the "clean cheeks" distinguishing this species from the Willow Warbler (photo courtesy of D. Wilczynska)
[Biebrza National Park, Poland, May 2017]

Frontal view of a Wood Warbler (photo courtesy of D. Wilczynska)
[Biebrza National Park, Poland, May 2017]

Near-frontal view of a Wood Warbler (photo courtesy of D. Wilczynska)
[Biebrza National Park, Poland, May 2017]

Near-frontal view of a Wood Warbler; this is the bird whose calls were recorded on 6 May 2017 (photo courtesy of D. Wilczynska)
[Biebrza National Park, Poland, May 2017]

Near-lateral view of a Wood Warbler (photo courtesy of D. Wilczynska)
[Biebrza National Park, Poland, May 2017]

Lateral view of a Wood Warbler (photo courtesy of D. Wilczynska)
[Biebrza National Park, Poland, May 2017]

Near-dorsal view of a Wood Warbler; note the bright inner edges on the wing feathers and the very long primary projection that distinguish this species from the Willow Warbler (photo courtesy of D. Wilczynska)
[Biebrza National Park, Poland, May 2017]

Call(s)/Song

For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The interpretation of their meaning is our own; comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

woodwrb_dw_20170506.m4a

(Poland)

Territorial calls?

© DW

More Wood Warbler sound recordings are available at xeno-canto.org .

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

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Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this web site, please contact us:          Last updated: Tue, 10 September 2019, 1:20 +00:00