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Marsh Warblers are very small warblers. Their front is creamy (eyebrows, throat) to buff-cream (face, chest, belly, vent), while the entire back is olive-grey, with darker grey flight feathers with olive-grey edge lining and tail. The eyes have dark-brown irises. The relatively long, almost straight bill has a grey upper mandible, the lower mandible is horn-coloured. The legs and feet are grey-yellow-pinkish.

Twitcher's tip

Compared to Clamorous Reed Warblers, Marsh Warblers have a rump that is the same colour as the rest of the body plumage (whereas that of the Clamorous Reed Warbler is red-brown).

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 Marsh Warbler is available HERE .

Marsh Warblers are a migratory Eurasian species. Their breeding grounds reach from the Benelux countries and southern England in the West, the southern coastal fringe of Scandinavia in the North and the Alps in the South via central Europe into mid-latitude western Asia (as far South as the river plains of Iraq). They winter mainly in south-eastern Africa. During their migration they can be found in the eastern Mediterranean, Asia Minor, the Middle East including Arabia and in the Nile valley.

In Europe they are found either during their breeding season, basically eastward of a line from the Bretagne to the western edge of the Alps. In the eastern Mediterranean they can also be seen during their migration.

As their name already suggests, Marsh Warblers have a preference for marshlands with tall growth and other wetland habitats during their breeding season. In their wintering grounds they tend to stay in well-vegatated country, but not necessarily wetlands.

J. Mierzwinski reports spotting a Marsh Marbler in Andrzejewo, Masovia, Poland, in June 2015.

D. Wilczynska reports spotting Marsh Warblers near Brok, on the river Bug, Masovia, Poland, in May 2016. Another one was found there in May 2020.

A. Sarok found Marsh Warblers in Vojvodina, Serbia, in the timeframe 2010-2024.

A Marsh Warbler was also spotted by us in Oman.