Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warbler Acrocephalus
(stentoreus) brunnescens was previously thought to be a rare winter visitor
at Sabkhat Al Fasl (Symens & Suhaibani 1996), but since this time its
status has changed significantly and it is now a common breeding resident with
additional small numbers of passage birds seen. They have a very loud song that
combines harsh grating and chattering sounds with more melodic notes and
squeaks and is more often heard than seen staying out of sight in the dense
vegetation. Sometimes birds climb to the top of reed stems and sing loudly,
normally at the beginning of the breeding cycle that starts early in the
Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia with one such bird photographed singing on 4
March with ringing data showing birds with brood patches occur from 27 March
onwards. Worldwide it has a large range that extends from Northeast Africa and
the Arabian Peninsula, through South and Southeast Asia to the Philippines, New
Guinea and Australia. The species appears to have colonised the area around
1999 with most birds being fairly sedentary year-round although some local
small-scale movements occur between breeding sites and presumably close by
wintering areas. The population density appears to be very high at the site but
there was no previous confirmation of numbers or movements. The large number of
birds caught here suggested movement, at least locally, as birds caught in the
early part of the year were not subsequently re-caught with new arrivals taking
their place. We have trapped and ringed over 100 different birds and re-trapped
23, most within a week or two of original capture, although the first bird we
caught at the site was retrapped two years later. We only ring in a small area
of the site (400m x 300m) so this shows how many birds are present. It also
appears there is at least some local movement, possibly within the site itself,
as the number of re-traps are relatively low compared to the total number or
birds ringed (22%).
