Common grasshopper warbler
Common grasshopper warbler | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Locustellidae |
Genus: | Locustella |
Species: | L. naevia
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Binomial name | |
Locustella naevia (Boddaert, 1783)
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Range of L. naevia Breeding Passage Non-breeding
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The common grasshopper warbler (Locustella naevia) is a
This small
This is a species which skulks in the undergrowth, creeping through bushes and low foliage, and which is very difficult to see except sometimes when singing from a prominent position. The song, which gives this species its name, is a monotonous mechanical insect-like reeling, often given at dawn or dusk.
Taxonomy
The Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi included the common grasshopper warbler in the second volume of his Ornithologiae. Aldrovandi died in 1605 but the volume was not published until 1637.[2] In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a detailed description of the common grasshopper warbler in his Ornithologie. He used the French name La fauvette tachetée and the Latin name Curruca naevia but although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.[3]
The common grasshopper warbler was described by the French polymath
Four subspecies are recognised.[9]
- L. n. naevia (Boddaert, 1783) – Europe to west European Russia and Ukraine; wintering in West Africa
- L. n. straminea Seebohm, 1881 – east European Russia to southwest, south central Siberia, east Kazakhstan, west Mongolia and northwest China; wintering in south Asia
- L. n. obscurior Buturlin, 1929 – east Turkey and the Caucasus
- L. n. mongolica – Kazakhstan to Afghanistan and west Mongolia; winters to north India
Description
The adult common grasshopper warbler (the name is the
The song is an unmusical long, high-pitched reeling trill performed with beak held wide open and the whole body vibrating. It lasts for from a few seconds to two or three minutes with hardly a pause for breath. It varies in volume from a faint hum to a sound resembling a distant mowing machine. It is performed at any time of day from early morning until after the sun has set and is constantly to be heard from the arrival of the bird in spring until late July. The alarm call is a repeated ticking noise that has been rendered as "twkit-twkit-twkit".[13] The song is similar to that of its congeners: the lanceolated warbler (Locustella lanceolata), Savi's warbler (Locustella luscinioides) and the river warbler (Locustella fluviatilis).[14]
Distribution and habitat
The common grasshopper warbler breeds in northwest
In the breeding season, the common grasshopper warbler is found in damp or dry places with rough grass and bushes such as the edges of fens, clearings, neglected hedgerows, heaths, upland moors, gorse-covered areas, young plantations and felled woodland. In the winter, it is usually found in similar locations but information is scarce on its behaviour and habitat at this time.[12]
Behaviour
This bird seldom takes to the wing but spends its time scurrying through dense vegetation, flitting from twig to twig or running along the ground. It has a peculiar high-stepping gait and long stride as it moves along horizontal stems, looking slender and tapering. It seldom flies, soon diving back into cover, and when it alights it often raises and flares its tail to show its streaked under-tail coverts. It has been known to feign injury in order to distract a potential predator.[12]
Breeding
Male common grasshopper warblers try to attract females by displaying to them. They walk or run along twigs with tail spread, fluttering their wings as they raise and lower them, often carrying a grass or leaf in their beak. In the air, with wings well extended and fluttering, they spread their tail and fluff their feathers.[12]
Both sexes take part in nest-building. The nest is well-concealed and built close to the ground in such places as grass tussocks,
Food and feeding
The common grasshopper warbler is insectivorous, feeding on a wide range of invertebrates. Its diet includes flies, moths, beetles, aphids, dragonflies and mayflies and their larvae. Spiders and woodlice are also eaten and the chicks are fed on aphids, green caterpillars, woodlice and flies.[12]
Status
The common grasshopper warbler is assessed by the
References
- ^ . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ^ Aldrovandi, Ulisse (1637). Vlyssis Aldrovandi philosophi ac medici Bononiensis historiam naturalem in gymnasio Bononiensi profitentis, Ornithologiae (in Latin). Vol. 2. Bononiae (Bologna, Italy): Franciscum de Franciscis Senensem. pp. 733–734 Lib. 17 Cap. 28.
- hdl:2246/678.
- ^ Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de (1779). "La fauvette tachetée". Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (in French). Vol. 9. Paris: De L'Imprimerie Royale. pp. 215–217.
- Daubenton, Louis-Jean-Marie (1765–1783). "La fauvette tachetée". Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle. Vol. 6. Paris: De L'Imprimerie Royale. Plate 581 Fig. 3.
- ^ Boddaert, Pieter (1783). Table des planches enluminéez d'histoire naturelle de M. D'Aubenton : avec les denominations de M.M. de Buffon, Brisson, Edwards, Linnaeus et Latham, precedé d'une notice des principaux ouvrages zoologiques enluminés (in French). Utrecht. p. 35, Number 581 Fig. 3.
- ^ Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1986). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 11. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 51.
- ^ Kaup, Johann Jakob (1829). Skizzirte Entwickelungs-Geschichte und Naturliches System der Europaischen Thierwelt (in German). Vol. 1. Darmstadt: Carl Wilhelm Leske. p. 115.
- ^ a b Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Grassbirds, Donacobius, Malagasy warblers, cisticolas, allies". IOC World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
- ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ Gill, Frank, and Minturn Wright, Birds of the World: Recommended English Names; Princeton University Press, 2006, p. 154.
- ^ a b c d e f g Witherby, H. F., ed. (1943). Handbook of British Birds, Volume 2: Warblers to Owls. H. F. and G. Witherby Ltd. pp. 36–30.
- ^ ASIN B00085ZBTC.
- ISBN 978-0-00-726814-6.
- ^ Robinson, R. A. (2005). "Grasshopper Warbler: Locustella naevia (Boddaert, 1783)". Birdfacts. British Trust for Ornithology. Retrieved 2013-08-03.
- PMID 18197250.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-19-857509-2.