Sylvia nisoria
Silhouette: Martin Bulla, based on John Cox's illustration · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The barred warbler (Curruca nisoria) is a species of bird in the warbler family Sylviidae which breeds across temperate regions of central and eastern Europe and western and central Asia. This passerine bird is strongly migratory, and winters in tropical eastern Africa.
It is the largest Curruca warbler, 15.5–17 cm in length and weighing 22–36 g, mainly grey above and whitish below. Adult males are dark grey above with white tips on the wing coverts and tail feathers, and heavily barred below. The female is similar but slightly paler and has only light barring. Young birds are buffy grey-brown above, pale buff below, and have very little barring, with few obvious distinctive features; they can easily be confused with garden warblers, differing in the slight barring on the tail coverts and the pale fringes on the wing feathers, and their slightly larger size. The eye has a yellow iris in adults, dark in immatures; the bill is blackish with a paler base, and the legs stout, grey-brown.
Within the genus Curruca it is highly distinctive; the barred underside is shared only with the Cyprus warbler, which has black barring and an entirely different overall colour pattern. The... Wikipedia →
Recording0:48
Czechia · 2024
© Martina Kišelová · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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Russia · 2025
© Natalia Melnikova · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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Austria · 2024
© Michael Bierbaumer · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 2 | Białowieża National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 3 | Fertő-Hanság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 4 | Tsavo West National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 5 | Biebrza National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 6 | Samburu National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 7 | Hortobágy National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 8 | Kiskunság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 9 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 10 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Barred Warbler sighting in Białowieża National Park on a given day, based on 122 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 90th most-seen of the 182 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and June
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Barred Warbler in Białowieża National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February–April and July–November, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Barred Warbler sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Barred Warbler sightings, Białowieża National Park ranks 2nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (Mongolia, about 20%).
Same genus: Sylvia
The closest relatives of the Barred Warbler that you can see in Białowieża National Park (genus Sylvia, Sylvia Warblers) are Blackcap (about 60%), Lesser Whitethroat (about 20%) and Garden Warbler (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Barred Warbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Białowieża National Park (122 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
