Panurus biarmicus

December 1st. Manjavacas Lagoon in Mota del Cuervo, Cuenca.

As winter approaches, the cold begins to be felt throughout the Peninsula and especially in its most inland areas, as is the case of the place we are going to visit this weekend: Manjavacas Lagoon. The objective of this trip is none other than to try to photograph a very peculiar little bird, orange-brown, with a long tail, undulating flight and that moves through the reeds like a fish in water.

The Manjavacas lagoon, with an area of ​​approximately one square kilometre and situated at an altitude of 670 metres, is located in the municipality of Mota del Cuervo, in the province of Cuenca. It is accompanied by other smaller lagoons, Sánchez Gómez, Alcahozo, Dehesilla, Navaluengo and Maljarejo, a lagoon complex belonging to the upper basin of the Záncara river (upper Guadiana). Its waters have a medium salinity in which there is an excess of nitrophilous nutrients that favours the presence of a good area of ​​reedbeds where one of the largest populations of bearded reedling (Panurus biarmicus) is found, a good place to be able to observe them with patience and time among the reedbed (Phragmites australis) and the eneal (Thypa domingensis).

The Moustached Warbler is a basically sedentary bird in the Iberian Peninsula. The males have a blue-grey head with a black moustache that makes them very attractive.

In summer, it feeds on rush aphids and various insects that it catches in puddles in the middle of the reedbed, and in winter on reed seeds. To do this, its digestive system changes to cope with the very different seasonal diets.

We arrived at the lagoon at first light, and with the recent autumn rains it was full, hosting numerous species of migratory birds, such as the noisy cranes (Grus grus) and the flamingos. In addition, in the reedbed we could see the Eurasian reed warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus), the vulture (Cisticola juncidis), the common linnet (Carduelis cannabina) and the cetti’s nightingale (Cettia cetti). But the protagonist this time was the moustached warbler, which with a little patience we could observe as they moved in flocks and, while emitting their unmistakable call, through the reedbed, leaving few opportunities to photograph them, taking advantage only of those brief moments when they climbed to the top of the reed bed before taking a short flight to change area.

Playing your song: