The clamorous reed warbler (''Acrocephalus stentoreus'') is an

Old World warbler The Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. They are not closely related to the New World warblers. The family held over 400 species in over 70 genera, and were the source of much taxo ...

in the genus '' Acrocephalus''. It breeds from

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

eastwards through

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

and northernmost

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

to south

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and southeast

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

. ''A. s. meridionalis'' is an

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

race in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Subspecies

Nine subspecies are recognised: * ''A. s. stentoreus'' ( Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833) – Egypt * ''A. s. levantinus'' Roselaar, 1994 – Israel, Jordan, Syria and northwest Arabia * ''A. s. brunnescens'' ( Jerdon, 1839) – Red Sea region to

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

and north India * ''A. s. amyae'' Baker, ECS, 1922 – northeast India, Myanmar, Thailand and south China * ''A. s. meridionalis'' (

Legge Legge () is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Alexander Legge (1866–1933), US businessman, president of International Harvester * Anthony Legge (1939–2013), British archaeologist specialized in zooarchaeology * Arthur Kaye Le ...

, 1875) – south India and Sri Lanka * ''A. s. harterti'' Salomonsen, 1928 – Philippines (except

Palawan Palawan (, ), officially the Province of Palawan (; ), is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of . The capital and largest c ...

group and

Sulu Archipelago The Sulu Archipelago ( Tausug: Kapū'-pūan sin Sūg Sulat Sūg: , ) is a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean, in the southwestern Philippines. The archipelago forms the northern limit of the Celebes Sea and southern limit of the Sulu Se ...

) * ''A. s. siebersi'' Salomonsen, 1928 – west

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

* ''A. s. celebensis'' Heinroth, 1903 –

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

* ''A. s. lentecaptus'' Hartert, EJO, 1924 –

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

and central, east

Sumbawa Sumbawa, is an Indonesian island, located in the middle of the Lesser Sunda Islands chain, with Lombok to the west, Flores to the east, and Sumba further to the southeast. Along with Lombok, it forms the province of West Nusa Tenggara, but th ...

(west

Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands (, , ), now known as Nusa Tenggara Islands (, or "Southeast Islands"), are an archipelago in the Indonesian archipelago. Most of the Lesser Sunda Islands are located within the Wallacea region, except for the Bali pro ...

)

Description

Clamorous reed warbler is a large

song thrush The song thrush (''Turdus philomelos'') is a Thrush (bird), thrush that breeds across the West Palearctic. It has brown upper-parts and black-spotted cream or buff underparts and has four recognised subspecies. Its distinctive Birdsong, song, w ...

-sized warbler at 18–20 cm. The adult has an unstreaked brown back and whitish underparts. The forehead is flattened, and the bill is strong and pointed. The sexes are identical, as with most warblers. It is very like the

great reed warbler The great reed warbler (''Acrocephalus arundinaceus'') is an insectivorous bird in the family Acrocephalidae. It is a medium-sized passerine bird and the largest of the European warblers. It breeds throughout mainland Europe and the Western Pa ...

, but that species has richer coloured underparts. There are a number of races differing in

plumage Plumage () is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, there can b ...

shades. The migratory northern race has the richest brown upperparts, and the endemic Sri Lanka subspecies is the darkest form. Like most warblers, the clamorous reed warbler is

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant which eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores we ...

, but will take other small prey items. The song is loud and far-carrying, but less raucous than that of the great reed warbler. It is a slow, chattering ' with typically acrocephaline whistles and mimicry added.

Habitat

Most populations are sedentary, but the breeding birds in

and north

are migratory, wintering in peninsular India and Sri Lanka. This

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

is a species found in large reed beds, often with some bushes. 3-6

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

s are laid in a basket nest in reeds.

References

* ''Warblers of Europe, Asia and North Africa'' by Baker, ISBN * ''Birds of India'' by Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp, ISBN clamorous reed warbler Acrocephalus (bird)">clamorous reed warbler Birds of Central Asia Birds of Afghanistan">Birds of Central Asia">Acrocephalus (bird)">clamorous reed warbler Birds of Central Asia Birds of Afghanistan Birds of Pakistan Birds of the Middle East Birds of Yunnan Birds described in 1833, clamorous reed warbler Taxa named by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg {{Acrocephalidae-stub