Locustella luscinioides

Savi’s Warbler is classified as Regionally Extinct (RE). It became extinct in the early 2000s and since then no nesting attempts were observed in Israel (although it is still a relatively common passage migrant and is seen in both migration seasons). In the previous edition of the Red Book (2002), it was classified as Critically Endangered (CR). The deterioration in its status reflects the deterioration of its population and the disappearance of the few pairs that nested in the Northern Valleys until the early 2000s.

Habitats	Wetland Thickets
Presence In Israel	Migrant, Summer Breeder
Nesting In Israel	Past Breeder
Migration Types	Long Range
Zoography Zones	Mediterranean
Landscape Formations	Wetland Thickets, Wetlands
Vegetation Formations	Wetland Thickets
Vegetation Densities	High
Nest Locations	Wetland Thickets
Diet Types	Invertebrate
Foraging Grounds	Ground, Trees and Shrubs
Body Sizes	Small (up to 500g)
Threat Factors	Wetland Drainage & Pollution

Savi’s Warbler resembles a Reed Warbler with a relatively uniform brown plumage. The back is greyish-brown (occasionally rufous), belly is light brown, chin is white and it has a pale eye-stripe. It has a narrow, pointed head and short wings. Most conspicuous identifying mark is its rounded tail, which has very long under-tail coverts, almost as long as the tail feathers. Savi’s Warbler spends most of its time on the lower part of streambank vegetation, where it moves nimbly on the ground among the reeds, with its rounded tail held high.

Until the 1960s, Savi’s Warbler was a common breeder in wetlands in northern Israel, down to Nahal Hadera in the south. Tens to hundreds of pairs nested on the Carmel coast, the Zevulun and Bet She’an valleys and the Northern Valleys. After most wetlands were drained the number of breeding pairs decreased in all these areas, and by 1980 the population was estimated at about 60 pairs, of which 5-15 nested on the Carmel coast, 30 in the Hula Valley, 15 in northern Sea of Galilee and 1-5 in the Jezreel Valley (Shirihai 1996). During the 1990s, the species disappeared from most of these areas (Mayrose & Alon 2001). Since the early 2000s, there is no concrete evidence of Savi’s Warbler breeding in Israel, although singing males can occasionally be heard in spring in the Hula Valley, and in summer very young fledglings have been seen, which raises the possibility that the species still breeds in the Hula Valley or in nearby Lebanon.

Dense reed thickets and varied riparian vegetation at the edge of marshes and water bodies in Mediterranean or steppe climates.

The main extinction factor seems to be habitat modification – the loss of wetland habitats with varied riparian vegetation and the drainage and pollution of water bodies. The species is also known to be sensitive to global weather changes (Maggini et al. 2014) and along with its extinction in Israel, it has expanded its range in northern Europe.

The breeding Savi’s Warbler population, which once comprised hundreds of pairs, has declined rapidly during the second half of the 20th century, and since the early 2000s, there is no concrete evidence of breeding in Israel. The population that nested in Israel was the southern limit of its global range.

• פז, ע. 1986. עופות. מתוך אלון, ע. (עורך), החי והצומח של ארץ ישראל. כרך 6. הוצאת משרד הביטחון, ישראל.

• Cramp, S and Simmons, R.G. 1992. The Birds of the Western Palearctic, Volume 6. Oxford University Press
• Maggini, R., Lehmann, A., Zbinden, N., Zimmermann, N.E., Bolliger, J., Schröder, B., Foppen, R., Schmid, H., Beniston, M. and Jenni, L. 2014. Assessing species vulnerability to climate and land use change: the case of the Swiss breeding birds. Diversity a
• Shirihai, H., 1996. The Birds of Israel. Academic Press, London.
• Symes, A. 2013. Species generation lengths. Unpublished, BirdLife International.
• Species page at Birdlife International