Middendorff's Grasshopper Warbler

Overview

Middendorff's grasshopper warbler (Helopsaltes ochotensis) is an Old World warbler in the family Locustellidae. The common name honours the German-Russian naturalist Alexander Theodor von Middendorff.

Identification

• Length of 15.5 cm with a greyish-brown crown, nape, lores and eye-stripe.
• Pale creamy supercilium extending to the ear coverts, contrasting with a browner, olive mantle.
• High-pitched, spaced 'chit, chit' song followed by a trilled 'trrrrrrrr-schoy-schoy-schoy' call.

Habitat

This species inhabits forests near water and scrubwoods. Its breeding range covers eastern Siberia to northern Japan, Kamchatka Peninsula and northern Kuril Islands, while it winters in the Philippines, Borneo and Sulawesi, with small populations recorded in parts of China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and the U.S.A.

Did you know?

The species is named after a German-Russian naturalist who travelled extensively in Siberia between 1815 and 1894.