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| Reed Warbler (Akroskephale scirpusaceus) |
So, here are the facts:
- They Summer along the East Coast of Ireland and all of England and Wales apart from Northern-Central England.
- They are a Green Status bird as there are 130,000 breeding pairs in the UK and in Europe there are 2.6 million to 4.5 million breeding pairs.
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| This Reed warbler was more wary of me than the Sedge warbler |
- They start breeding at 1 year old and, like the Sedge Warbler, live for 2 years. The oldest, though was 12 years, 11 months and 21 days.
- They usually have a length of 13cm and a wingspan of 19. Both Male and Female birds weigh 13g. Their ring size is A, the second smallest.
- They travel to us from Africa when they spend the winter. Always find it amazing that a bird that weighs so little flies so far!
- They must have amazing energy, They are also the Cuckoos favourite victim and they have to work hard to raise a Cuckoo chick!
- In some birds, their eye colour changes with age. When they are young they have a charcoal iris.
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| But eventually it came up for a clearer shot. |
- As they get older they have a olive-coloured iris. Also, when they are young, they have a spot on their tongue to help the adult feed them.
- Their diet is quite varied and they will east insects, fruit, seeds and flowers.
- Birdlife Europe estimates Europe has 50 and 74% of the breeding population at around 8.1m - 15m birds. A rough calculation would be that the world population is around 30,000,000 individual birds.
- Their scientific name (Akroskephale scirpusaceus) comes from both Greek and Latin. Akroskephale means pointed-head in Greek and Scirpusaceus means reed-resembling.
Here are some links to some more information:
Hope you enjoyed,
Z.
Lovely photos Zach! - Tasha
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