I recently took these pics at pennington in hampshire and wondered if the bird might be a marsh warbler. I am a novice so may be wrong but the light coloured legs seem to point more to a marsh warbler than a reed warbler. I would be grateful for any advice

This post was last modified: 24-05-2008 04:43 PM by alanc.

No, that doesn't look like a Marsh Warbler to me.

Here is a photo of one (not my own image)


The top of the bird looks too dark to be a Marsh Warbler, or maybee it is like this becasue it is in a shadow.

thanks Jamie. yes I agree - its does look a bit dark - but it was taken at dusk. I had several good veiws of the bird, the upper parts and upper head were a uniform brown - i thought it might have been a whitethroat but I have seen many of those in the area and it looked and acted in a completely different manner. It kept darting around in the low foliage finding insects - not far from a reedbed and made many short flights in a sort of haphazard manner between hedges and foliage either side of a small roadway.

I also considered Whitethroat, but they have a grey head and a white bib. I saw my first Whitethroat about 4 weeks ago.

Looks a bit like a Reed Warbler, but not 100% on the photos shown.

Thanks Paul
Its the apparently light coloured legs that threw me. I had a good look at the bird and the legs were definately not as dark as they seem to be on all the pictures of reed warblers that i have seen.
I thought it unlikely that i should be so lucky to snap a marsh warbler!
alan

marsh warbler is extremely difficult to id - I leave it to the experts! the best way to tell is through the song which is quite different from the reed warbler (you should be able to google and find some sound samples) It is a bit late to hear them in song but not impossible.

It is a very rare breeding bird so, just in case, please do not give more details on location.