Long-distance migrant passerine breeding in mires of flooded plains in C and E Europe. There has been a steep decline in recent decades due to habitat destruction. Most remaining populations are in Poland and Belarus, with some in Lithuania and Russia and a relict population in Pomerania, Germany. Winters in flooded Sahelian grasslands in W Africa, S Mauritania, Senegal and Mali (Salewski et al. 2009, Poluda et al. 2012).