THE GARDEN WARBLER.cluster of flowersThisspecies is about six inches in length, and on its upper parts of a light brown colour tinged with olive. Its under parts are brownish-white, darkest on the throat, chest, and sides. The absence of black or rusty brown on the top of the head always readily distinguishes it from the male or female Blackcap, and the colour of its throat and breast from either of the Whitethroats breeding in this country.The Garden Warbler arrives in Britain about the end of April or commencement of May, and takes its departure for Africa in September and October.It breeds sparingly in nearly all suitable parts of England except Cornwall, in Wales, in the South of Scotland, and occasionally in Ireland.It generally builds its nest at some little height from the ground in thorn, briar, bramble, gooseberry, and other bushes growing in woods, clumps of trees in the proximity of streams, orchards, shrubberies, gardens, and hedgerows. Sometimes the structure, which is made of straws, blades of dead grass, and rootlets, lined with horsehair, is hung amongst nettles like that of a Whitethroat, or placed low down in long grass, mixed with taller wild plants.The eggs, numbering four or five, rarely six, vary in ground colour from white to greenish-white or yellowish-stone-grey, are spotted, blotched, and clouded with underlying markings of ash-grey and buffish-brown. Some specimens are marbled with brown, and it is often a difficult matter to distinguish others from those laid by the Blackcap.GARDEN WARBLER ON NESTGARDEN WARBLER ON NEST.By most people the Garden Warbler is considered to rank next to the Blackcap as a melodist, and the songs of the two species resemble each other so much that I have known a naturalist with a good ear and wide experience unable to say definitely which bird was singing until he got a sight of the vocalist.Mr. Hudson says that “the Garden Warbler’s song is like a good imitation of the Blackcap’s, but it is not so powerful and brilliant. Some of its notes possess the same bright, pure, musical quality, but they are hurriedly delivered, shorter, more broken up, as it were. On the other hand, to compensate for this inferior character there is more of it; the bird, sitting concealed among the clustering leaves, will sing by the hour, his rapid, warbled strain sometimes lasting for several minutes without a break.”GARDEN WARBLER’S NEST AND EGGSGARDEN WARBLER’S NEST AND EGGS.The song is certainly softer, and lacks something of the wild dash and irregularity of that of its relative, but some of its notes are quite as sweet, and this fact strikes the listener, particularly when the bird is heard close at hand in some quiet, out-of-the-way corner where other vocalists do not interfere with the full enjoyment of the Garden Warbler’s song.The alarm note is a harsh “tech,” sounding something like the noise made by two pebbles being struck together.trees and shrubs
cluster of flowers
Thisspecies is about six inches in length, and on its upper parts of a light brown colour tinged with olive. Its under parts are brownish-white, darkest on the throat, chest, and sides. The absence of black or rusty brown on the top of the head always readily distinguishes it from the male or female Blackcap, and the colour of its throat and breast from either of the Whitethroats breeding in this country.
The Garden Warbler arrives in Britain about the end of April or commencement of May, and takes its departure for Africa in September and October.
It breeds sparingly in nearly all suitable parts of England except Cornwall, in Wales, in the South of Scotland, and occasionally in Ireland.
It generally builds its nest at some little height from the ground in thorn, briar, bramble, gooseberry, and other bushes growing in woods, clumps of trees in the proximity of streams, orchards, shrubberies, gardens, and hedgerows. Sometimes the structure, which is made of straws, blades of dead grass, and rootlets, lined with horsehair, is hung amongst nettles like that of a Whitethroat, or placed low down in long grass, mixed with taller wild plants.
The eggs, numbering four or five, rarely six, vary in ground colour from white to greenish-white or yellowish-stone-grey, are spotted, blotched, and clouded with underlying markings of ash-grey and buffish-brown. Some specimens are marbled with brown, and it is often a difficult matter to distinguish others from those laid by the Blackcap.
GARDEN WARBLER ON NESTGARDEN WARBLER ON NEST.
GARDEN WARBLER ON NEST.
By most people the Garden Warbler is considered to rank next to the Blackcap as a melodist, and the songs of the two species resemble each other so much that I have known a naturalist with a good ear and wide experience unable to say definitely which bird was singing until he got a sight of the vocalist.Mr. Hudson says that “the Garden Warbler’s song is like a good imitation of the Blackcap’s, but it is not so powerful and brilliant. Some of its notes possess the same bright, pure, musical quality, but they are hurriedly delivered, shorter, more broken up, as it were. On the other hand, to compensate for this inferior character there is more of it; the bird, sitting concealed among the clustering leaves, will sing by the hour, his rapid, warbled strain sometimes lasting for several minutes without a break.”
GARDEN WARBLER’S NEST AND EGGSGARDEN WARBLER’S NEST AND EGGS.
GARDEN WARBLER’S NEST AND EGGS.
The song is certainly softer, and lacks something of the wild dash and irregularity of that of its relative, but some of its notes are quite as sweet, and this fact strikes the listener, particularly when the bird is heard close at hand in some quiet, out-of-the-way corner where other vocalists do not interfere with the full enjoyment of the Garden Warbler’s song.
The alarm note is a harsh “tech,” sounding something like the noise made by two pebbles being struck together.
trees and shrubs