Balearic Warbler

Curruca balearica - Fauvette des Baléares

Systematics

Order
:
Passeriformes
Family
:
Sylviidés
Genus
:
Curruca
Species
:
balearica

Descriptor

von Jordans, 1913

Biometrics

Size
: 12 cm
Wingspan
: -
Weight
: 5 à 9 g

Geographic range

Distribution

Identification

This Balearic Warbler looks like a small Sardinian Warbler, a species with which it forms a superspecies and which it was once considered a subspecies of. In the adult male, the upper part is grey (a bit paler than the Sardinian Warbler), the underside is of a slightly pinkish grey (leaden-grey in the Sardinian Warbler) and the throat is whitish and not dark. There is a bright red eye-ring. The legs are of a quite bright orange. Females and juveniles are less brightly coloured and very difficult to differentiate from those of the Sardinian Warbler.

Subspecific information monotypic species

Foreign names

Fauvette des Baléares,
Curruca balear,
toutinegra-das-baleares,
Balearengrasmücke,
baleári poszáta,
Balearische Grasmus,
Magnanina balearica,
balearisk sångare,
Balearsanger,
penica baleárska,
pěnice baleárská,
Balear-sanger,
baleaarienkerttu,
tallareta balear,
pokrzewka balearska,
Baleāru ķauķis,
Балеарская славка,
バレアレスムシクイ,
巴岛林莺,
balearisk sångare,
巴里亞利林鶯,

Voice song and call

play
pause

The song, typically sung from the top of a bush, in the open, is very swift and short. It sometimes sings in a low mating flight. A succession of harsh notes and others more or less pure. The worry or contact call is a low, faint trill.

Habitat

The Balearic Warbler prefers lower garrigues from the coast up to around 1,200 m. It can also be found in higher terrain with Aleppo Pine trees and it colonizes shrubby scrublands as well as pioneer vegetation after fires.

Behaviour character trait

The species is sedentary. Contrary to what can be sometimes found in the literature, there is no evidence that individuals of the Balearic Warbler have been found on the eastern coasts of Spain.

Dietfeeding habits

The Balearic Warbler mainly feeds on small invertebrates. However, it also consumes small fruits like those of the lentisk mastic tree. It gathers a large part of its food from the ground or from the lower parts of vegetation. It also sometimes catches insects in flight in the manner of a flycatcher.

Reproduction nesting

The reproduction extends from March to June, with couples raising two broods, sometimes three. The nests are placed low in a bush (average 0.

m). Both sexes participate in the construction of the nest, which takes the form of a small and solid cup made of stems of grass and leaves, and lined with finer stems, rootlets and hair. The males build additional nests that will not be used for reproduction. The eggs, 2 to 4 per clutch (average 3.1 eggs/clutch), are incubated by both sexes for 12 to 15 days. The chicks, fed by both parents, leave the nest after about a dozen days.

Geographic range

This small Balearic Warbler lives throughout the Balearic Islands (except Minorca) where it is sedentary.

Threats - protection

IUCN conservation status

Extinct

Threatened

Least
concern

Extinc
in the Wild

Near
threatened

Not
evaluated

EX EW CR EN VU NT LC NE

With a population of around 20,000 pairs, the Balearic Warbler is not threatened. However, it disappeared from Minorca during the 1980s. This disappearance is thought to be due to strong competition from the Lesser Whitethroat (but this hypothesis is not accepted by all researchers).

Illustration

Access to all images

Sources of information

IOC World Bird List (v14.2), Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2024-04-18.
Le guide ornitho : Le guide le plus complet des oiseaux d'Europe, d'Afrique du Nord et du Moyen-Orient : 900 espèces, Svensson, Mullarney, Zetterstrom
Les passereaux d'Europe, tome 2, P. Géroudet, M. Cuisin
Vol. 11 - Handbook of the Birds of the World, Josep del Hoyo, Andrew Elliott and David Christie
xeno-canto, Sharing bird sounds from around the world,
HBW Alive,
Birds of the Western Paleartic interactive, Cramp Simmons
Identificació del busqueret coallarga (Sylvia sarda balearica)., Gargallo G.
The birds of the Iberian Peninsula, de Juana E. Garcia E.
Sylvia warblers. Identification, taxonomy and phylogeny of the genus Sylvia, Shirihai H., Gargallo G. Helbig A. J.

Other sources of interest