A species that is very hard to see, as it likes to skulk in dense vegetarion like reedbeds, brambles and thickets, usually near water. Despite these habits its explosive burst of a song, loud and piercing, which can also occasionally be heard in winter, makes it hard to miss where it is present. Cetti's Warbler are small birds with short wings and a medium length rounded tail. They have chestnut brown upper parts and grey underparts with a white throat and superciliary band. The tail is often kept cocked. They are not migratory.
This is a clip of their song:
Status and distribution in Hull
A recent colonist in the Hull area. Still scarce, but an increasing resident species. There is no mention of Cetti's Warbler in Richard Broughton's 'Birds of the Hull area', which indicates that there were no Hull area records before 2002. My own first Hull record is not until 16/05/2020, when a male sung by Oak Road, on the grounds of what was then CRODA. Several records from March to April 2020 came from the Willerby Carr area, but they didn't seem to have led to a population there. Since then, they have gone from strength to strength. What prompted me to write this post was to hear three singing males on territories along the Barmston Drain within my Sculcoates patch. Noddle Hill is the stronghold for the species in the area, with records for multiple males every year since 2021. There are also records from the Humber at Arco and St Andrew's Quay. The River Hull along Oak Road Playing fields and Oak Road lake have also yielded records in multiple years. A single record in 2023 came from an inaccessible site by the Western Cemetery which contains a ditch and small reed bed.
Conservation
Cetti's warblers are currently expanding north through the UK with populations growing dramatically since the first colonisation in the early 70s in Kent. In East Yorkshire, the first confirmed breeding was at Tophill Low in 2006. They are now widespread along main lowland water bodies like the Humber, River Hull, drains and wetlands. Survival and expansion requires mild winters allowing individuals to obtain enough food -mainly small insects and other invertebrates - so they are a species benefiting from global climate warming. They are Green Listed and are not birds of conservation concern. In 2016 they were removed from the Rare Breeding Birds Panel.
More information
BTO Bird Facts: Cetti's Warbler.
Tophill Low Blog. Download the 2006 bird report for details of the first Yorkshire breeding pair.
Note: I normally illustrate these Urban Bird posts with local photos, but I am yet to take a photo of this species in Hull, in fact the ones shown here are most of the ones I have of the species. Top shot: At Cley Marshes, Norfolk, 20/04/2017)
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