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  Profile

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  In flight

Songbirds

Savi's Warbler

Locustella luscinioides

• rare
• 55 km/h
• Least Concern

Reels out a long mechanical trill from deep in a reed bed. Sounds like a cricket the size of a sparrow.

Population

Roughly 2.1–4.8 million individuals globally (Europe alone ~530,000–800,000 breeding pairs, ~1.6–2.4 million individuals)

Habitat

Dense wetland vegetation — extensive reedbeds, marshes, and lagoons with reeds, sedges, and other marsh vegetation, sometimes with scattered sallows/bushes; low elevation (up to ~12 m)

Fun fact

Savi's Warbler is far easier to hear than see — it announces itself with a continuous, mechanical, insect-like reeling trill from deep in the reeds, and the species is named after the 19th-century Italian naturalist Paolo Savi.

Range

Breeds across temperate Europe and the western Palearctic to the Ural Mountains/Volga River (roughly 32°–61°N), including the Balkans and parts of NW Africa; full migrant wintering in sub-Saharan/West Africa (e.g. Senegal, Mali, Chad, Ghana, Sudan, Ethiopia); scarce vagrant further north (UK, Ireland)

Diet

Insectivorous — gleans flies, beetles, moths, damselflies/dragonflies, spiders, and other invertebrates low down amid dense reed and sedge vegetation, foraging mouse-like near the water

Size

0.14 m

Wingspan

0.21 m

Lifespan

9.8 years