Garden Warbler
Scientific name:
Sylvia borin
What they like
Dense shrubbery to sing and breed in. Think: hedges, bramble edges, rough ditch banks, young copses. In the garden: leave a corner nice and messy. Plant hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, field maple, dog rose and elder. In parks and yards: create wide edge margins, don’t mow everything neatly. On farmland: keep hedgerows, scrub belts and species-rich margins intact. Prune in stages, never all at once.
Ecological importance
Feeds mainly on insects and spiders; in late summer also berries. So: the more shrubs and rough vegetation, the more prey. It itself is on the menu for sparrowhawk and cats; dense cover makes the difference.
When in the Netherlands
Summer visitor. Usually back from late April, leaves in August–September.
Status
Common, but not a given: depends on insect-rich, shrub-rich places.
The Sound of..
OH NOOOOO, what does the Garden Warbler sound like?! We don't have any good recordings of this cheerful whistler in our database yet. Do you know? Have you ever heard it? Or do you have a good recording of this species? Let us know and email: [email protected]
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