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Moustached Warblers are small warblers. Both sexes look alike. Apart from light-grey streaked ear coverts and black eyestripes, their face (chin, broad supercilia) is white. The rest of the underparts is creamy to buff, with pale-rufous flanks and an off-white vent. The top of the head is near-black, with fine brown streaks. The nape of the neck is finely streaked dark-grey on brown, while the rest of the upperparts is brown with dark-grey centres to the wing feathers. The uppertail is grey-brown. The irises are dark-brown, while the bill, legs and feet are dark-grey.

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 Moustached Warbler is available HERE .

There are 3 extant races of Moustached Warblers. Their overall distribution ranges from the northern half of Africa and mostly eastern Europe into Asian Minor and central western Asia. The range of nominate race "melanopogon" extends from southern Europe and north-western Africa to Ukraine and western Turkey. Race "mimicus" resides in eastern Turkey to southern Russia, Kazakhstan, northwest China, Iran and Iraq. They overwinter in the area of Pakistan and north-western India.

In Europe there are two races of Moustached Warblers. In Europe the range of nominate race "melanopogon" extends from southern Europe to Ukraine and western Russia. Race "albiventris" has a limited range from southeastern Ukraine to southwestern Russia.

Moustached Warblers have a preference for reedbeds, in particular dense fallen reeds, often near more open patches around fresh water.

Race "melanopogon"