Description and Taxonomy
This is a medium-sized warbler. It is very similar in appearance to several other acrocephaline warblers, such as the Reed Warbler which also occurs in wetlands and has a similar breeding range. The male's distinctive song is useful for identification, as no other member of the genus mimics other birds to any significant extent. The Marsh Warbler also tends to avoid the stands of pure reed which are the Reed Warblers' favoured habitat.
The species is monotypic, and there is no significant geographical variation. The sexes are alike in appearance. Hybridisation with both Reed Warbler and Blyth's Reed Warbler has been occasionally recorded.
Read more about this topic: Marsh Warbler
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“As they are not seen on their way down the streams, it is thought by fishermen that they never return, but waste away and die, clinging to rocks and stumps of trees for an indefinite period; a tragic feature in the scenery of the river bottoms worthy to be remembered with Shakespeare’s description of the sea-floor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)