32. The Reed Warbler

Us birdwatchers have a term that we use for small, drab-looking birds that all look the same to the untrained eye: we call them LBJs and it stands for Little Brown Jobs. The Reed Warbler is an LBJ - small, brown and with no outstanding features. But for all its unspectacular looks, to BirdLife Malta people the Reed Warbler is a source of pride and satisfaction: it is another bird that BirdLife has helped to start nesting regularly in Malta. Reed Warblers (M: Bufula tal-Qasab) love wetlands with reeds, lots of reeds, and they also like their privacy. And this is exactly what BirdLife set out to provide in 1992 when it began its project to create Is-Simar nature reserve. There was a single lone record of Reed Warbler nesting before, in another site, but that was it. Since the creation of Is-Simar, however, up to eight pairs of Reed Warblers have been happily raising families there every year. The lesson is simple and clear: all that birds really need is for us to give them some space and some respect!

Text and photo by Ray Galea Copyright to Birdlife Malta.