Scientific name: Acrocephalus schoenobaenus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Bird group: Warblers
Field characters. 13 cm. Conspicuous creamy eye stripe, streaked upperparts, but rump unstreaked, rufous. Crown can be almost as dark as in Moustached Warbler, but supercilium more cream than white and plumage more yellow than reddish. Underparts cream with yellow-brown flanks. Juvenile sometimes with indistinct cream stripe on crown, resembling Aquatic Warbler.
Voice. An explosive 'tuc', often run together, and a grating 'chirr'. Song more varied and faster than that of Reed Warbler: a loud and hurried medley of repeated, musical, sharp notes, mixed with long canary-like trills, and phrases of other birds. Sings from exposed perch or during short, vertical display flight.
Distribution. Fairly common summer visitor, but locally declining.
Habitat. Low, dense vegetation near water, marshes, etc., sometimes found in narrow fringes of vegetation.
Food. Insects, mainly caught in vegetation or in pursuit flight.