Dartford Warbler

Sylvia undata

Order: Passeriformes
Family: Sylviidae
Presence in the Strait: Resident
Abundance: common
Protection in Spain: Special protection (List)
In Spanish: Curruca rabilarga

Photograph: Carles Pastor, CC BY-SA, vía iNaturalist

Length: 13 cm
Weight: 10 g

Presence in the Strait

Common resident in dense and low scrub in mountains.

Identification

Small, with dark appearance, long tail and short, broad wings. Males have dark-grey upperparts and wine-red underparts, throat spotted with white, red eye-ring and often raised crown. Females are like males but duller. Yellow-brown legs.

Movements

Sedentary, altitudinal movements, reaching the coastal area in the winter. Peaks in 1st hf. March and 2nd hf. October.

Bioestrecho editorial text. Last revised: 8 September 2026.

Photographs from iNaturalist observations with the licence checked file by file. Those marked “Strait” were taken within the area; place and date are those of each observation.

Calendar in the Strait

16 %

Peak in October. Observations under CC0 or CC BY licences. The distribution also reflects observation effort.

Where it is seen

Open records from the atlas database, in cells of about 3.6 km. Opacity follows the square root of the count, and also reflects where people observe most.

See on the map

First open record: 13 May 1927
Latest record: 30 December 2024

The oldest and the most recent open observation in the extended area. A recent first observation does not mean the species is new: it means nobody had published it openly before.

Conservation

The catalogues, Andalusian and Spanish, are what binds; the Red Book assesses the Spanish population with IUCN criteria, and the global Red List is the context.

LCNTVUENCR

Andalusian Catalogue: Special protection (List)
Spanish Catalogue: Special protection (List)
Red Book of the Birds of Spain 2021: EN · Endangered · breeding
Global Red List (IUCN): NT · Near threatened

Annex I of the Birds Directive

Andalusian Catalogue: Junta de Andalucía, list of 24 April 2025. Spanish Catalogue: MITECO, table of 30 June 2025. Red Book: SEO/BirdLife, 2021 (Annex I). IUCN: via GBIF, 6 September 2026. Red Book and IUCN categories are assessments; catalogue categories are legal obligations.

Phenology compared

Monthly distribution in proportion, by decade. It shows whether the passage is getting earlier or later.

2000–2009

2010–2026

Proportions, not totals: observation effort grew faster than any population.

Same genus in the Strait

Sardinian Warbler13–13 cm · Resident · overlapping size
Eurasian Blackcap14–14 cm · Resident
Subalpine Warbler12–12 cm · Seasonal
Garden Warbler14–14 cm · Migrant
Spectacled Warbler12–12 cm · Seasonal

Species of the same genus that also occur here, ordered by how close they are in size. Being relatives does not mean they are confused in the field, but that is where the doubts start: compare size and season.

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Sylviidae
GBIF taxon key: 10355796

Sources

Distribution and calendar: Bioestrecho's own database, ingested from GBIF and OBIS
Photograph: Carles Pastor, CC BY-SA, vía iNaturalist
Taxonomy: GBIF backbone, pending WoRMS for marine taxa
Editorial text: written by Bioestrecho
Last revised: 8 September 2026

Dartford Warbler

Presence in the Strait

Identification

Movements

Gallery