Oriental Reed Warbler

I went to Furuichi area again on June 4th to look for the Greater Painted-Snipe chicks but failed to find any. The lotuses in the fields have become much too tall for me to see any bird. So instead I turned my attention towards the loud Oriental Reed Warbler which was singing from the rooftop!

Singing male Oriental Reed Warbler

It was really owning the stage!

There were several male birds in Sekinoe and Furuichi area but the one in these photos was the most approachable one. However, it still wouldn't allow me to get close to it even while singing, so these photos had to be pretty heavily cropped, except for the one on the pole. After taking photos of it for a while, I realised that there was also another bird hopping quietly the nearby reeds. Sometimes the singing bird would go into that same area where the other bird was staying too, so I decided to go and check out that patch of reeds. Turned out, the quieter bird was busy building the nest. It was the first time ever for me to see a reed warbler's nest. It was cup-shaped, made of tiny sticks, leaves and filled with some cotton-like material. Hope to see some progress on this nest soon.

The quiet female with nesting material

The male coming back to the nest

Female bird at nest with nesting material

This is already the best view of the nest. It was located deep in the reed.