Ruud Streefkerk

Shortly after we hung an insect-hotel on our garden wall, we discovered that a garden- warbler had chosen to build a nest of moss and grass on top of it. The garden- warbler is a song-bird of about 14 cm in size (incl. tail feathers), which usually makes a bowl-shaped, well-hidden nest in dense vegetation. It has a rather inconspicuous appearance: a brownish-gray top and a light yellow-brown underside, a round head with a pointed brown beak and gray-brown legs. The food consists of insects, berries and seeds. The garden-warbler breeds from early May to July. One brood per year, with, in our case 4 eggs of which 2 hatched. Breeding time is only 11-12 days. Apparently both parents sit on the eggs, but we didn’t observe that: the male only occasionally brought some food. After hatching, the young were in the nest for 10 days before they flew out, from that moment on we never saw them again. Between July and October, the garden-warbler migrates via France, Spain and Portugal to Africa, where it hibernates south of the Sahara. The crossing to Africa takes place largely via the Strait of Gibraltar.