Garden Warbler

The Garden Warbler has rather featureless plumage. It prefers to spend time in deep cover in trees and bushes.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Sylvia borin
Family: 
Old World Warblers
Family Latin name: 
SYLVIIDAE
Category: 
Birds

Species description

Species description

The Garden Warbler is a common, rather small bird that has somewhat featureless plumage. It prefers to spend time in deep cover in trees and bushes. Despite its name, it prefers deciduous and mixed woodland rather than gardens. This warbler averages 14 centimetres in length and has a wingspan of 22 centimetres. It arrives in Britain in late April and early May, leaving from mid-July onwards. It winters in sub-Saharan Africa. The Garden Warbler feeds mainly on insects, although in autumn it prefers fruit, which is higher in energy, to help prepare it for the impending migration. In Portugal, because of its propensity for eating fruit in autumn, it is known as the fig-warbler. The Garden Warbler has a GREEN conservation status.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)

Details

Species family information

The Phylloscopus, or leaf, warblers are amongst the smallest warblers and are to be seen flitting amongst the foliage, gleaning small insects with their delicate, pointed bills. Most are shades of green or yellow, and several species have prominent wing-bars or eye-stripes which play a major role in species identification (for the birds as well as humans!). Most warblers in Europe and Asia are migratory, leaving their northern breeding grounds for the winter months to find insects in the warmer south. Most migration occurs at night, and birds will put on substantial fat reserves before undertaking these long journeys; it is not unknown for birds to double their body weight with fat in preparation. However, as climates change, this pattern of migration is evolving with birds not moving so far south, and a few individuals even overwintering on their breeding grounds.

Category information

The earliest feathered dinosaur fossils date from the early Cretaceous, but the ancestry of birds goes further back to Jurassic theropod dinosaurs, which shared a common ancestor with the crocodilians. Well known theropod groups include the tyrannosaurs, allosaurs, and other carnivores. Of surviving bird groups, the most ancient are the ratites (ostriches, rheas, tinamous, moas, kiwis, cassowaries, and emus), followed in evolutionary order by the waterfowl (ducks, geese and swans) and then the land fowl (chickens, turkeys, pheasants and their kin). Heene cemetery’s most ancient bird visitors are the woodpigeons. Strictly, therefore, we ought to refer to birds as dinosaurs, for they are direct descendants. The RSPB would be more accurately restyled as the RSPD. Where known, the conservation status of each bird is given as red, amber, or green, according to its survival potential based on 2016 populations and recent population trends.

Birds are warm-blooded, and have feathers, toothless, beaked jaws, and a strong, lightweight skeleton. They lay hard-shelled eggs. Their hearts have four chambers, and their metabolic rate is high. Although most are adapted for flight, many can also run, jump, swim and dive. Flightless birds retain vestigial wings. Brown, green, and grey are the commonest bird colours, for camouflage.