Bird Guide

Icterine Warbler vs Melodious Warbler

Icterine Warbler (Hippolais icterina)

Icterine Warbler

Hippolais icterina

Tiny13 gWoodland

A fairly big warbler with a large head, broad-based bill and long wings with a quite short square-ended tail. The upperparts are greyish-green and the underparts are uniformly light yellow. It has pale lores and a rather vague yellowish supercilium with a pale eye ring. Other distinguishing features include a panel on the folded wings formed by pale edges to the secondary feathers and tertiary feathers and the grey, sometimes bluish legs. Voice: The song is a fast nasal babbling incorporating mimicry of other species. The call is described as teck or tec, tec, tec.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Recording: Christopher Kullenberg · CC0
Photo: Max G.W. Verheij · CC0
Melodious Warbler (Hippolais polyglotta)

Melodious Warbler

Hippolais polyglotta

Tiny11 gWoodland

This is a medium-sized warbler, 12 to 13 cm (4.7 to 5.1 in) in length, and similar to its eastern counterpart, the icterine warbler (Hippolais icterina). The adult has a plain brown back and wings, and yellowish underparts. Compared to the icterine warbler, the upper parts are rather browner and the under parts rather yellower. The bill is strong and pointed and the legs are brown. The sexes are identical, as with most warblers, but young birds are paler on the belly. The song is a pleasant babbling.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Recording: Sonothèque ADVL · CC0
Photo: Alexis Lours · CC BY 4.0

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Icterine Warbler and Melodious Warbler.