Oliver Käseberg

Moustached Warbler is a scattered breeder in S Europe across to Kazakhstan. Populations vary from resident (W populations) to migratory (E populations) (BirdLife International 2021). In Europe, it mainly breeds in coastal wetlands through the Mediterranean coasts, inland Iberia and the plains around the Danube basin in E Europe. 

Season of assessment

B

Population trendStable
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		73800-188000,110000
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Moustached Warbler

For those birds/populations which migrate the main direction seems to be NE-SW: for the SW population, most displacements are of birds from S France that move to E/SE Iberia; for the E population, most movements of birds from Austria to Hungary are largely to wetlands around the Adriatic and in Italy, with a few further W, as far as E Iberia. There are few data for the population breeding in the E Mediterranean (S Turkey, Israel), movements are to the S, across to the Sinai peninsula. There are no encounters in N Africa, suggesting that most (all?) birds remain along the northern part of the Mediterranean.

Recoveries by Condition for Moustached Warbler

Overall, the vast majority of recoveries (99%) are recaptures by ringers. There are extremely few recoveries (N = 5) before 1960; all of which were shot dead or encountered sick/wounded. There were some recoveries of dead individuals during 1961-1990. Since 1991, virtually all recoveries are recaptures.

Annual Movements for Moustached Warbler

Movements to the winter quarters are seen in Oct, but it is likely that some birds left earlier. Birds are back on their breeding sites from Feb, but mainly in Mar. Distances moved are short (especially for the SW population) and it is likely that birds cover the distance between their breeding and wintering areas in just one/a few days.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Moustached Warbler

For the SW population, encounters in Iberia of birds breeding in France are mostly in Oct-Mar, indicating true migratory movements. However, some shorter movements could be dispersal, which can be >100 km (Ceresa et al. 2016). Most individuals, however, seem to be philopatric (Ceresa et al. 2016). Island populations appera to be resident; e.g. birds in the Balearic islands only encountered there (Aymí 1991). For the eastern population, recoveries outside the breeding grounds are mostly in Oct-Mar, with some in Apr, especially in Italy.

Juan Arizaga

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
Aymí, R.1991 . Primeres recuperacions llunyanes de la Boscarla Mostatxuda (Acrocephalus melanopogon) a la Mediterrànea occidental. Butlletí Parc Natural Delta de l’Ebre 6: 38–40
BirdLife International2021 . Species factsheet: Acrocephalus melanopogon.
Ceresa, F., Belda, E. J., Monrós, J. S.2016 . Similar dispersal patterns between two closely related birds with contrasting migration strategies. Population Ecology 58: 421–427

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