The Sardinian warbler is a common and widespread typical warbler from the Mediterranean region. Like most Currucaspecies, it has distinct male and female plumages. The adult male has a grey back, whitish underparts, black head, white throat and red eyes. Plumages are somewhat variable even in the same locality, with the intensity of a reddish hue on upper- and/or underside varies from absent to pronounced. The female is mainly brown above and buff below, with a grey head. The Sardinian warbler's song is fast and rattling, and is very characteristic of the Mediterranean areas where this bird breeds.
Taxonomy and systematics
The first formal description of the Sardinian warbler was by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1789 in the 13th edition of the Systema naturae. He coined the binomial nameMotacilla melanocephala. The current genus Sylvia was introduced in 1769 by the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli. The genus name is from Modern Latinsilvia, a woodland sprite, related to silva, a wood. The specific melanocephala is from Ancient Greekmelas, "black", and kephale, "head". Together with Menetries' warbler the Sardinian warbler forms a superspecies. Both have white malar areas and light throats, and otherwise black heads in adult males, as well as a naked ring around the eye. The subalpine warbler, which seems the superspecies' closest relative, has a dark throat and breast and a dark gray upper head in males, but otherwise shares these characters. These three species are related to a dark-throated superspecies consisting ofRüppell's warbler and the Cyprus warbler, which also share the white malar area with blackish above. This bird may be considered a superspecies, divided into the western Curruca melanocephala and Curruca momus from the more arid regions of the Near East and adjacent Africa.
Subspecies
The geographical variation in the Sardinian warbler conforms to some extent with Gloger's rule, though not as strongly as in some other typical warblers. The validity of leucogastra and norissae is not accepted by some authors, and valverdei has been described very recently. On the other hand, leucogastra might be more than one subspecies.
Curruca melanocephala melanocephala
Curruca melanocephala leucogastra - often included in melanocephala; phylogenetic status requires review
Curruca melanocephala momus
Curruca melanocephala norissae Nicoll, 1917: Fayyum warbler - probably only a local morph of momus
It breeds in the southernmost areas of Europe and just into Asia in Turkey and the eastern end of the Mediterranean. This small passerine bird, unlike most "warblers", is not particularly migratory, but some birds winter in north Africa, and it occurs as a vagrant well away from the breeding range, as far as Great Britain.
Behaviour and ecology
This is a bird of open country and cultivation, with bushes for nesting. The nest is built in low shrub or brambles, and 3-6 eggs are laid. Like most "warblers", it is insectivorous, but will also take berries and other soft fruit.
