
Pallas's grasshopper warbler (''Helopsaltes certhiola''), also known as the rusty-rumped warbler, is an
Old World warbler
The Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. They are not closely related to the New World warblers. The family held over 400 species in over 70 genera, and were the source of much taxo ...
in the genus ''
Helopsaltes
''Helopsaltes'' is a genus of passerine birds in the grassbird family Locustellidae.
A comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study of the grassbird family Locustellidae published in 2018 found that the genus ''Locustella'' consisted of two distin ...
''. It breeds in the eastern
Palearctic
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa.
Th ...
: from the Altai Mountains, Mongolia and Transbaikalia to northeastern China, the Korean Peninsula, and islands in the Sea of Okhotsk (Sakhalin and Kuril Islands). It is
migratory, wintering from
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
eastward to
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. It is a rare migrant in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
.
Etymology
This bird was named after the German zoologist
Peter Simon Pallas
Peter Simon Pallas Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE (22 September 1741 – 8 September 1811) was a Prussia, Prussian zoologist, botanist, Ethnography, ethnographer, Exploration, explorer, Geography, geographer, Geology, geologist, Natura ...
. The specific ''certhiola'' is a diminutive from the genus ''Certhia'', the
treecreeper
The treecreepers are a family, Certhiidae, of small passerine birds, widespread in wooded regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The family contains nine species in one genus, '' Certhia''. Their plumage is dull-coloured. As their name implies, they ...
s.
The sixth edition of ''
Clements Checklist
''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world.
The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 202 ...
''
[Clements, James F. (2007) ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' ]Cornell University Press
The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University, an Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. It is currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, maki ...
refers to this species as "Pallas's warbler", a name more commonly used for ''
Phylloscopus proregulus.''
Habitat
This small
passerine
A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...
is found in tall grass with some thicker vegetation, usually close to water in bogs or
wet meadow
A wet meadow is a type of wetland with soils that are Solubility, saturated for part or all of the growing season which prevents the growth of trees and brush. Debate exists whether a wet meadow is a type of marsh or a completely separate type of ...
s. From 4 to 7 eggs are laid in a nest on the ground in grass. This species is a very rare
vagrant
Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, ...
to western
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
. One of the best places to see this
skulking species as a vagrant is
Fair Isle
Fair Isle ( ; ), sometimes Fairisle, is the southernmost Shetland island, situated roughly from the Shetland Mainland and about from North Ronaldsay (the most northerly island of Orkney).
The entire archipelago lies off the northernmost coa ...
,
Shetland
Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...
; for a species that only rarely appears in western Europe, it can be found there with some regularity.
Description
This is a medium-sized warbler. The adult has a streaked brown back, whitish grey underparts, unstreaked except on the undertail. The sexes are identical, as with most warblers, but young birds are yellower below. Like most warblers, it is insectivorous. It is very similar to the
common grasshopper warbler
The common grasshopper warbler or just grasshopper warbler (''Locustella naevia'') is a species of Old World warbler in the genus ''Locustella''. It breeds across much of temperate Europe and the western Palearctic. It is bird migration, migrator ...
, but is slightly larger, has white tips to the tail and tertial feathers, and a warmer brown rump. The white tips are the reason for its
colloquial
Colloquialism (also called ''colloquial language'', ''colloquial speech'', ''everyday language'', or ''general parlance'') is the linguistic style used for casual and informal communication. It is the most common form of speech in conversation amo ...
,
mnemonic
A mnemonic device ( ), memory trick or memory device is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval in the human memory, often by associating the information with something that is easier to remember.
It makes use of e ...
name of "
PG Tips
PG Tips is a brand of tea in the United Kingdom manufactured by Lipton Teas and Infusions.
Brand name
In the 1930s, Brooke Bond launched PG Tips in the tea market in the United Kingdom under the name Pre-Gestee, a variant of the original name "D ...
".
This is a skulking species which is very difficult to see except sometimes when singing. It creeps through grass and low foliage.
Voice
The song is not the mechanical insect-like reeling produced by the common grasshopper warbler and some other ''Locustella'' warblers, but an inventive ''Acrocephalus''-like melody.
Subspecies
Five subspecies recognized:
*''H. c. rubescens''
Blyth, 1845
*''H. c. sparsimstriatus''
Meise, 1934
*''H. c. certhiola''
(Pallas, 1811)
*''H. c. centralasiae''
Sushkin, 1925
*''H. c. minor''
David & Oustalet, 1877
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1345750
Pallas's grasshopper warbler
Birds of Mongolia
Birds of Manchuria
Wintering birds of Indomalaya
Pallas's grasshopper warbler