Subalpine Warbler; Curruca carrasqueña

Description:

Related to the Sardinian Warbler. It dives out of sight into the spikiest of shrubs and bushes and can be frustratingly elusive at times, although it often appears on top and launches into a brief, bouncy song-flight in full view. Females are paler than adult males, which are easy to identify. Females and immatures, which are even paler, are more difficult, especially if they turn up as vagrants farther north in autumn. The call is a sharp, ticking or clicking tet, sometimes quickly repeated; song high-pitched, Linnet-like, musical warbling, fast, with quick variation in pitch. Small, neat cup nest in low vegetation. 3 or 4 eggs; 2 broods;April–June. It forages in low scrub and herbs, or higher in leafy trees, searching for insects and spiders. The flight is short, weak, quick, undulating, with bursts of wingbeats. Breeds on bushy slopes, in low, tangled hedges and thorny thickets, and in open, evergreen oak woods in Spain, Portugal, and Mediterranean Europe, from April to September. Migrants at times appear farther north in low, dense undergrowth near coasts.

Habitat:

Mostly around theMediterranean; the Subalpine Warbler is typical, inhabiting warm, sun-bathed slopes and fields with rough, tangled hedges and thickets of aromatic shrubs and spiny bushes. Spotted on a Holm oak forest

Notes:

Camera Model: NIKON D300. Exposure Time: 1/250 sec.; f/8; ISO Speed Rating: 800. Exposure Bias: 0 EV. Focal Length: 300.0 mm.