Booted Warbler

The booted warbler is a reed and tree warbler of the family Acrocephalidae. The plumage is undistinguished, plain greyish-brown on the upperparts and paler below, with a clear pale eyebrow and a short bill with a dark tip. It looks like a short-winged, rather pot-bellied warbler with a square-tipped tail (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds from central Russia to western China and in eastern Europe, and migrates to winter in the Indian subcontinent as far south as Sri Lanka. It is a regular vagrant to western Europe and has expanded its breeding range westward in recent decades, nesting now as far west and north as Finland. The nest is on or close to the ground, or at a maximum of about 1 m, hidden among dense undergrowth. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, a winter migrant of open habitat that eats invertebrates, with a Large range of about 736,000 km² and stable trends (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).