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Willow Warbler | Phylloscopus trochilus
Fitis | Mosquitero musical
The Willow Warbler is one of the most numerous migrants in the region: millions of birds from Europe and Siberia cross the Mediterranean, the Sahara and the Arabian deserts twice a year to and from sub-Saharan Africa. In spring almost every bush in an oasis, garden or wadi holds some. It does not breed in the region.
Voice
The call is a soft, disyllabic hoo-eet, more clearly two-noted than in Common Chiffchaff. The song, also heard from spring migrants, is a soft, descending series of clear whistled notes ending in a short flourish.
Recording: Stanislas Wroza — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
11–12.5 cm. A slim, greenish-yellow leaf warbler with long wings: upperparts olive green, underparts whitish with a yellow wash on throat and breast, a clear pale yellow supercilium and a dark eye-stripe. Legs usually pale brown to flesh-coloured, bill with a pale base to the lower mandible. The primary projection is long, about three quarters of the tertials. Juveniles in autumn are strikingly yellow below. Eastern birds (acredula, yakutensis) are greyer, with less yellow, and sometimes almost grey and white.
Confusion species
Common Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) is more compact and shorter-winged, with dark legs, a shorter, less sharp supercilium, a pale half eye-ring below the eye and a habit of constantly dipping its tail. Western Bonelli's Warbler (Phylloscopus bonelli) and Eastern Bonelli's Warbler (Phylloscopus orientalis) have a yellow rump, green wing edges and a plain, pale face. Wood Warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix) is larger, with a bright yellow throat sharply contrasting with a white belly.
Habitat
On passage any place with bushes or trees: oases and date-palm gardens, acacias in wadis, tamarisks along water, gardens, parks, orchards and riverine woodland, even small groves in the middle of the desert. Gleans insects among foliage, often high in the canopy.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the habitats of North Africa and the Middle East.
Range and movements
On spring passage, from mid-March to mid-May, common throughout the region, from Morocco and Algeria through Tunisia, Libya and Egypt to the Levant, Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula; most conspicuous in Israel (Eilat, Jordan Valley), Sinai and along the Nile. In autumn, August to October, less visible but likewise widespread. Eastern birds mainly pass through Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. A few winter in Egypt and the Levant. Breeds in Europe and northern Asia to eastern Siberia and winters in sub-Saharan Africa.
- 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
A spring morning in April in a well-vegetated garden in Eilat, an oasis on the Moroccan desert edge or a park in the Gulf states: among the many chiffchaffs and willow warblers look for the long wings, pale legs and soft hoo-eet.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened. Has declined in parts of western Europe; on migration it is vulnerable to drought in the Sahel, loss of vegetation in oases and trapping with nets and limesticks, notably in Egypt.
Scientific name
Phylloscopus trochilus | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Motacilla Trochilus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Phylloscopus was introduced in 1826 by Boie. Phylloscopus is Greek, from phullon 'leaf' and skopos 'seeker', from skopeō 'to watch': the bird that searches the foliage. trochilus is Ancient Greek trokhilos, 'wren', the classical authors' name for a small bird. The specimen the first description was based on came from England south of the Thames.