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Eastern Olivaceous Warbler | Iduna pallida
Oostelijke vale spotvogel | Zarcero pálido oriental
Eastern Olivaceous Warbler is the region's commonest Iduna: a colourless, grey-brown warbler that constantly dips its tail and delivers its grating babble from tamarisks, palm groves and bushes by water. It breeds from the oases of the northern Sahara via the Nile valley to the Levant, Iraq and Arabia, and migrates in large numbers through Egypt and Arabia.
Voice
The song is a fast, nasal and grating babble with a skipping, constantly repeated rhythm, without clear whistles or mimicry, kept up for minutes from a tree or bush; faster and shriller than Western Olivaceous Warbler. The call is a hard chek or chrek, accelerating into a rattle when alarmed. In the breeding season it sings all day, even in the heat.
Recording: András Schmidt — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
12–13.5 cm. Small and plain: grey-brown above, off-white below, without yellow, without streaking and with at most a faint pale supercilium in front of the eye. The bill is long and broad for its size, with an orange lower mandible; the flat forehead gives the head a peaked look. Primary projection short, tail square-ended and the same brown as the back, with narrow off-white edges to the outer feathers. Legs grey. Behaviour is decisive: at almost every move the tail is jerked downwards. The forms differ little: elaeica in the Levant, Iraq and Arabia is greyer and slightly larger, nominate pallida in Egypt and reiseri in the Saharan oases are smaller and paler and sandier. Sexes alike.
Confusion species
Western Olivaceous Warbler (Iduna opaca) is larger, longer- and broader-billed and browner, with a slower song; it breeds in the Maghreb north of the range of reiseri, so location usually decides, but care is needed on migration in Morocco and Algeria. Sykes's Warbler (Iduna rama) is smaller and shorter-billed, with a longer, rounded tail and the same tail-pumping. Upcher's Warbler (Hippolais languida) is larger, with a grey head and a dark, white-edged tail that it slowly waves. Eurasian Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) is warmer brown with a rounded tail and does not dip it.
Habitat
Tamarisk scrub and riverine woodland along rivers, canals and wadis, date-palm groves and orchards in oases, irrigated farmland with hedges, parks and gardens in villages and towns, and reed edges with bushes; in the Levant also in olive groves and scrub on slopes. On migration anywhere with bushes, also in the desert.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the habitats of North Africa and the Middle East.
Range and movements
In North Africa the form reiseri in the oases of the northern Sahara, from south-east Morocco (Tafilalt, Drâa) through the Algerian Sahara to southern Tunisia and inland Libya, and nominate pallida in Egypt, common in the Nile valley and delta, the Fayoum and the oases of the Western Desert; Egyptian birds are partly resident. From Sinai through Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria to Iraq the form elaeica, a common summer visitor; in Saudi Arabia a breeder in varying numbers and locally also along the Gulf. On migration, April – May and August – October, numerous through Egypt, the Levant and all of Arabia to Yemen and Oman. Beyond the region the species breeds in south-east Europe, Turkey, Iran and Central Asia, and south of the Sahara in the Sahel (laeneni) and Somalia (alulensis); the migratory forms winter in Africa south of the Sahara, mainly from Sudan to East Africa.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the palm groves of Merzouga and the oases of the Drâa, in the gardens along the Nile at Luxor and Aswan or in the tamarisks of the Jordan Valley it is impossible to miss in the breeding season: listen for the grating babble and wait for the dipping tail. In Arabia it can be found in almost any park or garden in April and September.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened and widespread and locally numerous in the region. It benefits from irrigation, plantings and gardens, but locally loses riverside vegetation and old palm groves; in the Saharan oases drought and neglect of the gardens play a part. The subspecific arrangement, in particular the position of reiseri, is still under study.
Scientific name
Iduna pallida | (Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833)
Hemprich & Ehrenberg described the species in 1833 as Curruca pallida; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Iduna was introduced in 1840 by Keyserling & Blasius. Iduna is usually linked to Iðunn, the Norse goddess who guarded the apples of eternal youth; the authors of the name gave no explanation, and other derivations have been proposed as well. pallida is Latin for 'pale'. The specimen the first description was based on came from the Nile in Egypt and Nubia.