The melodious warbler

The Andalucía Bird Society recommends looking out for the Hippolais polyglotta this month

Peter Jones

Ronda

Thursday, 17 April 2025, 14:58

Many of the summer birds are starting to arrive back from spending their winter in various regions south of the Sahara Desert in Africa. So many of the warblers are delicate small birds that undertake this amazing migration in spring and autumn, when you see them, it is impossible to imagine how they are capable of such distant journeys. One of their number, the melodious warbler, is a bird I love to welcome home to Andalucía. Their joyful song, a mixture of scratchy notes followed by sweet warbling is a sound of summer in my area and throughout the region.

The melodious warbler is common and widespread as a breeding bird throughout the region. Normally our first birds are recorded returning from their West Africa wintering grounds in late March with the majority arriving during April. The birds migrating to more northern area in West Europe arrive much later and continue to pass through our region during April and even early May.

Our breeding birds prefer habitats that have low dense cover with a few trees or tall bushes and in my area, they appear to be attracted to dense cover, such as thickets of bramble, on woodland edges. They are particularly abundant near water and river systems with good shrub cover and trees (riparian vegetation). I am fortunate to often get views along my local riverside vegetation of the scarce and local western olivaceous warbler,Iduna opaca, that can be attracted into the open by the song of the melodious warbler.

The local birds tend to begin their departure for their wintering grounds during July, with adult birds leaving ahead of juveniles. Late summer and autumn migration begins in July and then continues through August and September, there are a few records of birds being seen in October.

Studies from 1998 to 2012 showed a significant increase in the population and this appeared to continue until more recent times. Subsequently, some local declines have been reported but whether this is due to habitat loss or part of a more general decline is yet to be determined.

I am hoping, after our high rainfall during March, that the expected above average growth of plant life will provide an abundance of insect life that will in turn provide food for our returning birds to thrive this coming breeding season.

Our insectivore birds have had a hard time over the last few years, so it is not before time they enjoyed the fruits of their arduous migration in reaching our shores.

More information www.andaluciabirdsociety.org

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