The distinctive song of this summer migrant has its own name
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Kate Humble presents the grasshopper warbler
THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER DOES AN excellent job of sounding like an insect. Its spring song resembles the high-pitched whirring of a grasshopper or bush-cricket and is sustained for minutes at a time, so that it blends into the background, just as insect sounds do. But rather helpfully, this migratory bird starts singing soon after it returns to the UK, from mid-April onwards, whereas real grasshoppers and bush-crickets don’t strike up until later in summer. The song is frequently compared to fishing line being paid out, and has its own name: reeling.
This is a well-camouflaged bird that avoids the limelight, spending most of its life hunting insects close to the ground among damp thickets or waterside vegetation, making it easier to hear than see. Occasionally, a reeling male will appear at the top of a bramble stem or hawthorn bush, giving fortunate birders the briefest of views, but that’s about it.