Knysna Warbler

About the Knysna Warbler

The Knysna warbler or Knysna scrub warbler (Bradypterus sylvaticus) is a very shy and cryptic warbler, endemic to the coastal regions of South Africa. Its population is small and probably declining, due to natural and artificial fragmentation of its habitat, and limited dispersal and reproductive ability.

Brown with an olivaceous tinge on the upperpart plumage, including the wings and tail. Below it is paler olivaceous brown, and whitish on the centre of the belly. The chin and throat are olivaceous brown, but mottled whitish and finely streaked. The tail is relatively short and square. The eye, bill, legs and feet are brown, though the lower mandible is paler and horn-coloured.

The habitat of the Knysna warbler is dense tangled scrub of forest edges, on or relatively near the coast. It has adapted to non-native bramble thickets and colonised suburban riparian woodland, though without any marked range expansion.

It occurs along the coastlines of the southern Western Cape and Eastern Cape, and marginally in KwaZulu-Natal, but is extinct from the vicinity of Durban, due to habitat loss. A small population of less than 40 pairs exists on the eastern... Wikipedia →