Garden Warbler

Sylvia borin (Boddaert, 1783) GW GARWA 12760
Family: Passeriformes > Sylviidae

Garden Warbler, Colin Brown

Garden Warbler is one of Britain’s most nondescript birds earning it the true moniker of little brown job.

A warbler of dense scrub understorey and woodland edge, the Garden Warbler is more often noticed in well-wooded countryside rather than in gardens. It is evenly coloured brown with beige underparts, and has a stout black bill and beady black eye. Garden Warblers spend our winter months south of the Sahara.

The Garden Warbler comes into its own when it sings, with rich, fluty whistling notes. In addition to its lack of a black cap, to the practised ear its song distinguishes Garden Warbler from the commoner and more widespread Blackcap.

Exploring the trends for Garden Warbler

Our Trends Explorer will also give you the latest insight into how the UK's Garden Warbler population is changing.

trends explorer

Identification

Garden Warbler identification is sometimes difficult. The following article may help when identifying Garden Warbler.

SONGS AND CALLS

Listen to example recordings of the main vocalisations of Garden Warbler, provided by xeno-canto contributors.

Alarm call

Call

Song

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Status and Trends

Population size and trends and patterns of distribution based on BTO surveys and atlases with data collected by BTO volunteers.

CONSERVATION STATUS

This species can be found on the following statutory and conservation listings and schedules.

POPULATION SIZE

POPULATION CHANGE

Despite large short-term fluctuations in abundance, the CBC/BBS data suggest that the population may possibly be in long-term decline. Although the long-term trend does not raise alerts in this report due to wide confidence intervals, formal alerts have been raised in two of the last three reports. The BBS map of change in relative density between 1994-96 and 2007-09 indicates that strong decreases in southern and eastern Britain over that period contrasted with increases in the west and north. There has been a decline across Europe since 1980 (PECBMS: PECBMS 2020a>).

Exploring the trends for Garden Warbler

Our Trends Explorer will also give you the latest insight into how the UK's Garden Warbler population is changing.

trends explorer

DISTRIBUTION

Garden Warblers favour scrub, copses and woodland edge throughout England, Wales and southern and central Scotland; farther north they are distributed more patchily, occurring in northeast Scotland, Strathspey and along the Great Glen. Garden Warblers are scarce in Ireland.

Occupied 10-km squares in UK

European Distribution Map

European Breeding Bird Atlas 2

Breeding Season Habitats

Relative frequency by habitat

Relative occurrence in different habitat types during the breeding season.

>Bar of similar size indicate the species is equally likely to be recorded in those habitats

DISTRIBUTION CHANGE

Since the 1968–72 Breeding Atlas there has been a 12% increase in Garden Warbler range in Britain & Ireland. These increases are most evident in the west and north of the range, in Ireland, Northumberland and Scotland. Increases are also apparent on low ground around the Fens and in Lancashire.

Change in occupied 10-km squares in the UK

SEASONALITY

Garden Warbler is a summer visitor, arriving from mid April. When not singing it is much harder to detect and is recorded at low levels during autumn migration.

Weekly occurence of Garden Warbler from BirdTrack
Weekly occurrence patterns (shaded cells) and reporting rates (vertical bars) based on BirdTrack data. Reporting rates give the likelihood of encountering the species each week.

Movement

Information about movement and migration based on online bird portals (e.g. BirdTrack), Ringing schemes and tracking studies.

An overview of year-round movements for the whole of Europe can be seen on the EuroBirdPortal viewer.

RINGING RECOVERIES

View a summary of recoveries in the Online Ringing Report.

Foreign locations of birds ringed or recovered in Britain & Ireland

Foreign locations of Garden Warbler ringed or recovered in Britain & Ireland
Encountered in: Winter (Nov-Feb); Spring (Mar-Apr); Summer (May-Jul); Autumn (Aug-Oct)

Biology

Lifecycle and body size information about Garden Warbler, including statistics on nesting, eggs and lifespan based on BTO ringing and nest recording data.

PRODUCTIVITY & NESTING

Exploring the trends for Garden Warbler

Our Trends Explorer will also give you the latest insight into how the UK's Garden Warbler population is changing.

trends explorer

SURVIVAL & LONGEVITY

View number ringed each year in the Online Ringing Report

Exploring the trends for Garden Warbler

Our Trends Explorer will also give you the latest insight into how the UK's Garden Warbler population is changing.

trends explorer

BIOMETRICS

Feather measurements and photos on featherbase

CODES & CLASSIFICATION

For information in another language (where available) click on a linked name

Gaelic: Ceileiriche-gàraidh
Welsh: Telor yr Ardd
Catalan: tallarol gros
Czech: penice slavíková
Danish: Havesanger
Dutch: Tuinfluiter
Estonian: aed-põõsalind
Finnish: lehtokerttu
French: Fauvette des jardins
German: Gartengrasmücke
Hungarian: kerti poszáta
Icelandic: Garðsöngvari
Irish: Ceolaire Garraí
Italian: Beccafico
Latvian: darza kaukis
Lithuanian: sodine devynbalse
Norwegian: Hagesanger
Polish: gajówka
Portuguese: toutinegra-das-figueiras
Slovak: penica slávikovitá
Slovenian: vrtna penica
Spanish: Curruca mosquitera
Swedish: trädgårdssångare
Folkname: Pettychap

Research

Interpretation and scientific publications about Garden Warbler from BTO scientists.

CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS

Causes of change

The causes of change in Garden Warbler abundance are unclear, but the decline is most likely to be driven by reduced productivity or juvenile survival.

Further information on causes of change

Garden Warbler abundance has varied alongside that of other trans-Saharan migrant warblers (Siriwardena et al. 1998b), probably reflecting the influence of changes in their winter environment. Despite large short-term fluctuations in abundance, the CBC/BBS data suggest that the population may be in long-term decline. Analysis of annual population changes and winter survival estimates across western Europe shows only a weak relationship between survival and population change, suggesting than long-term population change may be driven by reduced productivity or juvenile survival (Johnston et al. 2016). CES survival rates for adults have decreased, and there have been increases in nest failure rates and corresponding declines in the number of fledglings per breeding attempt. Post-fledging productivity, as measured by the CES, has also declined sharply since 1983. The negative effects of deer browsing are particularly strong for Garden Warbler (Holt et al. 2011) and hence a reduction in understorey habitat could potentially be a factor which has contributed towards the observed trends, though this has not been confirmed.

Information about conservation actions

The main drivers of change for Garden Warbler are not known and may possibly reflect changes during winter, but productivity may play a role and therefore conservation actions to improve breeding habitat could benefit this species. Mustin et al. (2014) found that the change in vegetation cover at 0.5 to 2 m above ground was the most important factor determining colonization or extinction by Garden Warbler, and suggested that habitat creation could help counteract possible future effects of future climate change.

The importance of understorey habitat to this species is also highlighted by another study which looked at the effects of deer browsing on bird species. The negative effects of deer browsing were particularly strong for Garden Warbler (Holt et al. 2011) and therefore actions to control deer numbers or exclosures to exclude deer are likely to help provide understorey habitat for this species, as well as other actions to encourage the growth of shrub layer vegetation.

Links to more information from ConservationEvidence.com

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