Eastern Crowned Warbler

Overview

The eastern crowned warbler (Phylloscopus coronatus) is a medium-sized, robust Old World warbler classified as Least Concern. It is a brightly coloured leaf warbler that inhabits boreal and temperate forests across the east Palearctic region.

Identification

• Dark olive-green upperparts and white underparts with a strong head pattern featuring dark grey lateral crown stripes and an indistinct yellowish median crown stripe.
• Long yellowish-white supercilium accompanied by a dark stripe through the eye, dark lores, and dusky yellow cheeks.
• Features a single pale wingbar, a square tail with a slight fork, a strong pale-coloured bill, and dark legs.

Habitat

Breeds in eastern Siberia from the Argun River eastwards into western Manchuria, central Sichuan, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan. Found in open mixed or deciduous woodland at lower and middle mountain altitudes, or in dense taiga in northern ranges. Winters in south-east Asia from eastern India and Bangladesh to Java, utilising open woodland, deep jungle, and mangroves.

Diet

Forages in an arboreal manner but often works quite low down in the vegetation. Readily flycatches by sallying out from a perch to catch insects in flight and joins mixed flocks of other small birds during winter and the breeding season.

Did you know?

Despite its primary range in the east Palearctic, it has appeared as a vagrant in western Europe, with the first recorded sighting in Great Britain occurring in County Durham in 2009.