Alström's warbler facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Alström's warbler |
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Phylloscopus
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| Species: |
soror
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The Alström's warbler (Phylloscopus soror), also known as the plain-tailed warbler, is a small bird belonging to the family Phylloscopidae. It's a type of Old World warbler, first discovered and described in 1999. This bird makes its home and raises its young only in China. When winter arrives, it flies south to warmer places like Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Its natural home is in cool, temperate forests.
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Where Alström's Warbler Lives and Travels
Alström's warbler often looks for food in the lower, thick parts of forests. This bird loves to eat insects, catching them during short, quick flights. It's not currently considered a threatened species around the world. In fact, it lives across a very large area and isn't close to becoming a vulnerable species.
These warblers usually breed in warmer, temperate areas. You can find these spots in evergreen broadleaf forests and places with lots of green undergrowth in older forests. They have breeding areas scattered across central and eastern China. The warbler prefers to build nests in bushes and small trees that aren't too tall, often in areas where trees have recently been cleared.
This bird is a migratory species, meaning it travels long distances. During the winter, it flies to southern Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, southern Vietnam, and parts of southern China.
About its Name
Alström's warbler was once placed in a different group of birds called Seicercus. However, after scientists studied the birds' DNA in 2018, they found that Phylloscopus and Seicercus were not distinct enough. So, they decided to combine them into one larger group, Phylloscopus. This is because Phylloscopus was named first. The bird's common name honors a Swedish bird expert named Per Alström.
How to Spot an Alström's Warbler
Alström's warblers are small birds, measuring about 11 to 12 centimeters long. Female warblers are usually a bit smaller than males. It can be tricky to tell an Alström's warbler apart from other similar birds, such as Martens's, Gray-crowned, White-speckled, and Bianchi's warblers.
This bird has a grayish-black color on its head, which gets lighter on its forehead. It also has a mix of green feathers around its eyes. The underside of the bird is a bright yellowish-green. Its wings and back are grayish with black stripes. A key feature is a clear yellow eye-ring around its eye, which might spread out a little above the eye.
To help tell it apart from Martens's and Gray-crowned warblers, the Alström's warbler has a larger beak and a shorter tail. It also has more noticeable white lines on the outer feathers of its tail.
Breeding Habits
Based on when the male birds sing, Alström's warblers usually mate from May to June. Scientists don't fully know where these birds go when they are not breeding or exactly when they migrate.
However, they have been seen in southern China outside their breeding areas from early September to early October. Warblers have also been spotted in Thailand in mid-September and in southern Vietnam in late September. Non-breeding warblers have been observed in southern Myanmar until mid-April. By late April, these warblers have been seen back in their breeding grounds in China. It's hard to know their exact locations during the non-breeding season because many similar-looking birds that don't sing can make identification very difficult.
Its Song
This bird has a very simple song. It's made up of short, quick bursts of notes, often starting with a short chip sound. After the chip, you'll hear 2 to 5 short, whistled notes. These whistled notes are usually repeated 2 to 4 times, followed by a short pause. The Alström's warbler's song is noticeably higher-pitched and covers a wider range of sounds than the song of the P. valentini. You can easily remember its song as a brief che-witchy-chew-witchy-chew.
