Bush warblers and allies | Cettiidae

Cettizangers | Ruiseñores bastardos

The family does not belong here by nature: on the island group in the Pacific a species was released in the 1920s and has since spread across almost all the main islands, from gardens and plantations up into mountain forest. These are inconspicuous brown birds of dense low scrub, with short rounded wings and a long graduated tail that carries ten feathers instead of the usual twelve. They stay in cover almost all the time and are heard far more often than seen. The song is extraordinarily loud for so small a bird: a long drawn high whistle followed by a short, bursting closing phrase, and it carries through thick greenery far enough to mark out a large territory. A male mates with several females; the female builds the nest alone, a deep cup low in the foliage, and raises the young by herself.