Day 234 - Sensationaly Wonderful Sedge Warblers

Sedge Warbler (Akroskephale skhoiniklosbaino)

Hi all today's Day 233 and sometimes I go to Salthome RSPB Reserve where I saw these lovely birds. I've also seen them at Leighton Moss where Autumnwatch is sometimes filmed and a place that I go when ever I go on holiday near there. Most of the time all I saw of these birds was a little whirr of wings over to a reed and a little bird hopping down them to cover! But in the end I found one so busy singing I was able to get a few shots.

These birds are a close relative to the Reed Warblers and are just a lovely to watch and see. From the title and pictures you'll know that I am talking about the Sedge Warblers.

So, here are the facts:

Took a while to find one that wasn't down in the reeds 

• They are a Green Status bird as they have 290,000 breeding territories in the UK and in the Europe there are between 3.9 million and 4.1 million breeding pairs.

• They usually start breeding at 1 year and they live for 2 years but the oldest lived for 8 years, 8 months and 8 days.

• They can have either 1 or 2 broods which consist of  5 eggs which need incubating for 14 days and fledge after another 13 - 14 days.

• On top of this they have a juvenile survival rate of a pretty good 0.25 or one in four make it to an adult.

• All of this means that the average adult pair will raise 3 chicks to breeding age. (5 / 2 + 5 = 7.5 / 2.5)

• They are 13cm long and have a wingspan of 19cm. They weigh but 12g! Also, there ring size is A, the second smallest.

But this one was happily singing away

• Their Scientific name (Akroskephale skhoiniklosbaino) is Greek and means pointed head / a reed to walk.

• The Sedge Warbler is a very good mimic and will add in different phrases to its song, meaning it never sings the same song again.

• The Male with the largest variation of songs (the Male that has heard the most bird songs) attracts the most Females.

Here some links to some more information:

Birdlife - Sedge Warblers

RSPB - Sedge Warblers

BBC Nature - Sedge Warblers

BTO Birdlife - Sedge Warblers

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.