Yellow-Browed Warbler
Phylloscopus inornatus
Also known as: Inornate Warbler
Habitat
Understory
Diet
Invertebrate
Active Time
Diurnal
Size
7 g
About This Species
A tiny warbler that breeds across Siberia and winters in South and Southeast Asia, it forages actively in the understory and lower canopy for small insects, flicking its wings almost constantly. Its thin, rising call is often the first clue to its presence, since the bird itself is easy to overlook among foliage. Migration periods bring it well outside its core range as a scarce but sought-after vagrant, when coastal scrub and sheltered gardens are worth checking closely.
Ethical Viewing Guidelines
- Watch quietly from a short distance with binoculars, since this is a small, easily flushed bird that will simply move deeper into cover if crowded.
- Bird protection law differs between its breeding range in Russia, its wintering range across South and Southeast Asia, and the countries where it turns up as a vagrant, so do not assume one jurisdiction's rules apply elsewhere.
- Avoid playback or repeated calling to draw the bird out, particularly during migration when it needs to conserve energy.
Seasonal Activity
284,404 sightings · 2000–2026
Citizen science records via GBIF
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Phylloscopidae
Traits
- Diet
- Invertebrate
- Foraging
- Understory
- Activity
- Diurnal
- Body mass
- 7 g
Photo
(c) Kim, Hyun-tae, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Kim, Hyun-tae
CC-BY-4.0
Occurrence data from GBIF.