Nesting Of The Large-Billed Reed Warbler Acrocephalus Orinus: A Preliminary Report

Large-billed Reed Warbler Acrocephalus orinus has a limited breeding distribution. It is known to inhabit valleys of the Panj river and its tributaries in Gorny Barakhshan Autonomous Republic (Tajikistan) and Badakhshan province (Afghanistan). Here we give descriptions of nests and eggs of this species based on 18 fresh nests found in Panj and Ghund valleys (Tajikistan) in 2011. Unlike the closely related species A. dumetorum and A. scirpaceus, Large-billed Reed Warbler has nests built with a layer of wool and seed tufts. Nests are placed on twigs of sea-buckthorn, willow and other bushes, herbs and reed stems over dry soil. Large-billed Reed Warbler clutch size is relatively small (on average, 3.77 +/- 0.83 eggs (n = 13)). The ground colour of eggs is usually white, not bluish, greenish or rosy as in the related species.