Marmora's Warbler
Curruca sarda
A fairly uniform lead-gray warbler with a red eyering and orangey legs. Females are brownish-gray overall, with a paler throat and no black lores. Breeds only on Sardinia, Corsica, and a few smaller adjacent islands, in open scrubby habitats on mountainsides and rocky coastal areas; winters in open grassy and shrubby habitats in North Africa. Song is a complex twittering similar to other warblers in the same group.
Identification
These are small, long tailed, large-headed birds, overall very similar to their close relatives in the Dartford warbler group. Marmora's warblers are grey above and below, lacking the brick-red underparts of the Dartford warbler. Adult males have darker patches on the forehead and between the eye and the pointed bill. The legs and iris are red. The song is a fast rattle. Immature birds can be confused with young Dartford warblers, which are also grey below, but Marmora's have a paler throat. Their iris is dark.
Taxonomy
Marmora's warbler was formerly described in 1820 by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck under the binomial name Sylvia sarda. Temminck based his account on a manuscript by the Italian soldier and naturalist Alberto della Marmora that had been read at the Academy of Turin in August 1819. Marmora's warbler is now one of 27 species placed in the genus Curruca that was introduced by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein in 1802. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
- Scientific name
- Curruca sarda
- Authority
- (Temminck, 1820)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Sylviidae
- Genus
- Curruca
Range and habitat
It breeds on Mediterranean islands, typically including Corsica and Sardinia. The smaller Balearic Islands bird is given specific status as Balearic warbler, Curruca balearica. These two seem to form a superspecies which in turn groups with Tristram's warbler and the Dartford warbler. They are generally resident but some birds migrate south to winter in north Africa. They are rare vagrants to northern and western Europe. These small passerine birds are found in open country with thorny bushes and heather. 3-5 eggs are laid in a nest in a bush. Like most warblers, they are insectivorous.
- Breeding range
- PAL : Mediterranean Is.
- Non-breeding range
- nw AF
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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