Finnish Focus On... Blyth's Reed Warbler

Blyth's Reed Warbler. A species I openly admit I did not give enough love to back in Ireland.

It's understandable though. A brown skulker in a hedge, giving the odd "tac" call, desperately trying to see if it has a short primary projection etc, is not the most exciting experience you can have in Irish birding. That, of course, is having a Fea's petrel bank up into your scope or a Pallid Harrier glide into view or a Baltimore Oriole pop up beside you at the tennis courts on Cape Clear.

Here, however, they are not brown skulkers, well...they are, of course, but not when they arrive in. And even after they establish themselves on territory you can always come across one or two which are showy.

When they make landfall they can't wait to proclaim their presence, singing at any time of the day, from any suitable patch of habitat. They're often not brown as adults either, in my opinion, more silvery, khaki and white and often delightfully showy.

Clean and crisp

They tend to pop up as any breeder does, first encountered whilst on a walk or run, or drive by past a random garden, when you first hear those rising three notes, followed by a reversal, descending of the same three notes, bringing an instant, involuntary smile.

Their status has changed dramatically over the past 50 years or so, to become commoner than Marsh Warbler, and arriving about two weeks earlier than them.

Silvery - there's something whitethroaty about them at times.

Blyth's for me is fairly consistently spiky billed.

I have enjoyed trying to map out my local birds, first when living in Espoo, where the park just 50 meters away had a few pairs, and the network of footpaths through scrub and meadows had many.

Blyth's Reed Warbler can use virtually any height of vegetation for singing, from brambles to tall trees.

Now, out in the boondocks, in more mixed woodland, they are more sparsely situated. We have had one sing in the garden briefly on migration, which I assume is the same one which has taken up a territory about 150 meters up the road. Otherwise they have a density of, being very scientific here, one per every 3rd "large" scrubby ditch (any ditch over 200 meters with mature bushes) or well vegetated gardens, especially with apple trees in my experience.

One very convenient bird sings in the car park of the train station every morning. A great way to start my daily commute.

Some sites, such as Tampere dump or Isohuopalahti in Helsinki have excellent densities of them, often allowing you to view competing males simultaneously.

One of the often quoted features is a supercilium not extending far behind the eye. I think not. Many birds seem to have the appearance of a long super.

Late evening walks in suitable habitat makes a star of this species, often singing in tandem with Marsh Warbler and Thrush Nightingale.

There's something stand out about them though, and again, not a species I would ever have expected to become so familiar with, let alone have it on my garden list.

Here's to a long summer full of them.

Update: June 2021

Having recently seen an Irish "guru" (I'd go with gobshite) say Blyth's are "dull as dishwater" and lacking yellow, I had to laugh.

Blyth's is a metamorph. Comes in many forms. Sandy brown, grey, greenish, buff, white, off-white and like this one below...yellowish. The variability, especially in different lighting, should not be underestimated.