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Western Orphean Warblers are small insectivore birds. Their plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and females are slightly different. Males have grey-black forehead, ear coverts and lores, while the rest of the head is charcoal-grey. The front is pinkish-buff-grey with buff undertail coverts, while the back is brownish-grey. The flight feathers are dark-grey, with inconspicuous brownish edge lining. Females are very similar to males, only their heads are a shade lighter grey and their upperparts have a stronger brownish hue. Their irises can be variable, while males have pale irises. First-winter Western Orphean Warblers always have dark irises and their heads are lighter-grey.

The Western Orphean Warbler is no longer considered to be conspecific with the Eastern Orphean Warbler, which is now called "Sylvia crassirostris".

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Western Orphean Warbler is available HERE .

Western Orphean Warblers are a migratory species. Their winter quarters are in western sub-Saharan Africa, as far eastward as Niger and up to Mauretania in the North. They breed in (near-)coastal north-western Africa and in parts of south-western and southern Europe.

In Europe Western Orphean Warblers are found as summer breeding migrants. Their breeding range encompasses Iberia, the Balearic Islands, far southern France, Corsica and northern to central Italy. Anywhere northward of the Alps they are vagrants.

Western Orphean Warblers have a preference for breeding in deciduous woods, often on sunny, rocky mountain slopes, with shrubbery, but they are also found in dense riverine vegetation and, although shy around the nest site, even in olive groves.

J. Pires reports finding a Western Orphean Warbler in Mora, Evora, Portugal, in April 2020. Another was spotted at the same location in June 2024. All sighting and audio information presented on this page has kindly been contributed by J. Pires.