Sylvia borin
Silhouette: Martin Bulla, based on John Cox's illustration · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The garden warbler (Sylvia borin) is a common and widespread small bird that breeds in most of Europe and in the Palearctic to western Siberia. It is a plain, long-winged and long-tailed warbler with brown upperparts and dull white underparts; the sexes are similar and juveniles resemble the adults. Its two subspecies differ only slightly and interbreed where their ranges overlap. Due to its lack of distinguishing features, this species can be confused with a number of other unstreaked warblers. The garden warbler's rich melodic song is similar to that of the blackcap, its closest relative, which competes with it for territory when nesting in the same woodland.
The preferred breeding habitat in Eurasia is open woodland with dense low cover for nesting; despite its name, gardens are rarely occupied by this small passerine bird. The clutch of four or five blotched cream or white eggs is laid in a robust cup-shaped nest built near the ground and concealed by dense vegetation. The eggs are incubated for 11–12 days. The chicks are altricial, hatching naked and with closed eyes, and are fed by both parents. They fledge about 10 days after hatching. Only about a quarter of young birds survive their first year. The garden warbler is strongly migratory, wintering in sub-Saharan Africa. A wide range of habitats are used in Africa, but closed forest and treeless Sahel are both shunned. Insects are the main food in the breeding season, although fruit predominates when birds are fattening prior to migration, figs being a particular favourite where available. These warblers have a mixed diet of insects and fruit in their African wintering grounds.
The garden warbler is hunted by Eurasian sparrowhawks and domestic cats, and its eggs and nestlings are taken by a variety of mammalian and avian predators. It may be host to various fleas, mites and internal parasites, and it is a host of the common cuckoo, a brood parasite. The large and fairly stable numbers and huge range of the garden warbler mean that it is classed as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Despite a small population decline in much of its European range, the bird's breeding distribution is expanding northwards in Scandinavia. Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jerusalem | 🇮🇱 Israel | |
| 2 | Yekaterinburg | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 3 | Novosibirsk | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 4 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland | |
| 5 | Kazan | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 6 | Cologne | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 7 | Minsk | 🇧🇾 Belarus | |
| 8 | Saint Petersburg | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 9 | Stockholm | 🇸🇪 Sweden | |
| 10 | Yerevan | 🇦🇲 Armenia |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Garden Warbler sighting in Masai Mara National Reserve on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 371st most-seen of the 398 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Garden Warbler in Masai Mara National Reserve on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Garden Warbler sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
32nd of 33
Of the 33 parks where we can rate Garden Warbler sightings, Masai Mara National Reserve ranks 32nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Białowieża National Park (Poland, about 20%), Biebrza National Park (Poland, about 10%) and Ecrins National Park (France, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Garden Warbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Masai Mara National Reserve (9 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.
