Australian Reedwarblers in full song

Australian Reedwarbler, Laratinga Wetlands, Mt Barker, Sth Aust

During my visit to the Laratinga Wetlands in Mt Barker, Adelaide Hills, last week the reed beds were constantly alive with both Little Grassbirds and Australian Reed-warblers singing. Every patch of reeds seemed to have 4 to 6 individual birds of each species. I didn’t do a count as it would be very hard to do this considering that both species can be very secretive in the reeds. I tried to get photos of the Little Grassbird, but they were too shy and stayed mostly in the reeds. I did see the occasional one flit from one reed patch to another but far too quickly for a photo.

The reed-warblers were a little more cooperative. I stood patiently for about half an hour on the jetty in the middle of the photo below. One section was about 3 – 4 metres from the clump of reeds in the photo above. Several reed-warblers kept flitting around on my side of the reeds, in full sun for my benefit. After many failed attempts I was able to get one reasonable shot as shown above.

I took a much closer shot of this species some years ago, and I’ve posted this at the bottom of this post. This photo was taken at Cleland Wildlife Park of a captive bird in a walk-through aviary.

Laratinga Wetlands, Mt Barker, Sth Aust

Australian Reedwarbler