Scientific name: Sylvia nisoria (Bechstein, 1795)
Bird group: Warblers
Field characters. 15 cm. Like a large Garden Warbler. Upperparts of adult male with white feather-edges, most pronounced on coverts, tertials, and rump. Underparts white, entirely marked with dark crescents. Tail broad and quite long, with white edges and tips. Iris yellow, giving Eurasian Sparrowhawk-like look. Female often somewhat duller and less marked with crescents, but sexes rather variable. Juvenile resembles Garden Warbler because of largely uniform grey-brown plumage and dark eye, but larger, upperparts slightly more greyish, tertials and wing coverts with white edges, forming two white bars on coverts, and some faint dusky barring on flanks and undertail-coverts. Moves heavily and slowly through vegetation. Sometimes easy to detect on migration, but usually very skulking and hard to see. Flight straight, unlike other Sylvia warblers.
Voice. Call 'chack' and long rattle. Song similar to Garden Warbler, but shorter and harsher.
Distribution. Common summer visitor.
Habitat. Dry forest edges or scrubland with bramble, hawthorn and juniper
Food. Invertebrates and fruits.