Birdwatching for beginners

Garden warblers

This is a quietly beautiful bird. Catching a glimpse of one feels like something of a gift, as they don’t often spend time in the open and prefer dense undergrowth and tall trees. Garden warblers are plump, around 14cm in length, and have large, dark eyes with a light-coloured ring around and a subtle, pale line above. The sturdy legs and dark-tipped beak are grey, while plumage is green-brown or olive, with subtle variations. The throat is pale, almost off-white, reaching to patches of light grey on the side of the throat and jaw, and there can be brownish feathers on the wings. These are summer visitors and you’re more likely to hear one before you see it; the call is a ‘tack tack,’ and the song loud and gorgeous, with low, quick notes alternating with harsher bursts of rippling up and down.