Great Reed-Warbler ( Acrocephalus arundinaceus, family: Sylviidae)

Birds & Birding in the Kruger National Park South Africa. In Roberts 6 this bird was called Great Reed Warbler

Great Reed Warbler Distribution Kruger National park The Great Reed-Warbler (Latin name Acrocephalus arundinaceus) is described in Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique Roberts number of 628 and you will find a full description of this bird on page 799 also a picture of the Great Reed-Warbler on page 849. The Great Reed-Warbler belongs to the family of birds classified as Sylviidae.

In the previous edition of Roberts (ie 6th edition) the Great Reed-Warbler was called the Great Reed Warbler

The map of the Kruger you see on this page shows the areas (coloured orange) where this bird has been identified. The basic information was provided by the Avian Demographic Unit based at UCT and I created the maps from that information ... the green dots show the locations of the various Kruger National Park Rest Camps

The Great Reed-Warbler is neither Endemic or near Endemic to the Kruger National Park.

In terms of distribution of the Great Reed-Warbler in the Kruger National Park you may not see it in all areas. Great Reed-Warbler : see above distribution map.

The Great Reed-Warbler.

Identification assistance for this avian species ...

The Great Reed-Warbler is a smallish bird but somewhat larger than a house sparrow. The height of the Great Reed-Warbler is about 20 cms and its weight is about 25 gms

You will find that the male Great Reed-Warbler plumage and colours are different to that of the female Great Reed-Warbler

  • Head is olive, brown.
  • Eye is brown.
  • Bill is black.
  • Throat is brown.
  • Back is olive, brown.
  • Legs are brown.

This bird has normally proportioned leg length.

Main diet items for this bird ...

The Great Reed-Warbler feeds on the ground mainly

Invertebrates

Breeding and nesting habits for this bird ...

The Great Reed-Warbler takes on more than a single mate (it is bigamous).

The nesting habit of Great Reed-Warbler is extra limital

Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird ...

The preferred habitats for Great Reed-Warbler are: grasslands and arid areas

You will normally see the Great Reed-Warbler by itself rather than in the company of birds of the same species.

Names of this avian species in other languages ...

Xhosa ... Unknown

Zulu ... Unknown

Afrikaans ...Grootrietsanger

German ... Drosselrohrsnger

Portuguese ... Rouxinol-grande-dos-canios

French ... Rousserolle turdode

Dutch ... Grote Karekiet

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For in-depth birding information please refer to these authoritative avian references ...

Robert's 7th edition number ... 628

The main reference source for this data was "Roberts - Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition" . Other references were "Newmans Birds of the Kruger Park" by Keith Newman published circa 1980 . Names in foreign languages were obtained from the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town website , www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za