Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler

Overview

Pallas's grasshopper warbler (Helopsaltes certhiola), also known as the rusty-rumped warbler, is an Old World warbler in the genus Helopsaltes. It is a migratory species that breeds across the eastern Palearctic and winters from India eastward to Indonesia.

Identification

• A medium-sized warbler with a streaked brown back and whitish grey underparts, which are unstreaked except on the undertail.
• Distinguished from the common grasshopper warbler by being slightly larger, possessing a warmer brown rump, and having white tips to the tail and tertial feathers, earning it the colloquial name "PG Tips".
• Young birds appear yellower below, while adult sexes are identical.
• A skulking species that is difficult to observe, often seen creeping through grass and low foliage, and sometimes detected when singing.

Habitat

This small passerine is found in tall grass with some thicker vegetation, usually close to water in bogs or wet meadows. Its breeding range extends from the Altai Mountains, Mongolia, and Transbaikalia to northeastern China, the Korean Peninsula, and islands in the Sea of Okhotsk, including Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

Diet

Like most warblers, it is insectivorous.

Did you know?

It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe, yet one of the best places to observe it in this region is Fair Isle in Shetland, where it appears with some regularity despite its overall rarity on the continent.