Bill wide open, a melodious warbler pours out its song from a young Atlas cedar. A summer visitor that fills the Algerian woodlands with sound from April onward.
There are mornings in late spring when the Algerian woodland seems to be made entirely of sound. Chief among the singers is the melodious warbler (Hippolais polyglotta) — a small, lemon-yellow bird with a long, hurried, chattering song that it delivers with its whole body, bill thrown wide open as in this frame.
The melodious warbler is a summer visitor to Algeria, arriving from its sub-Saharan wintering grounds in April and staying to breed through the early summer. It favours open woodland, scrub and the edges of cultivation, and in the Atlas it is especially fond of young cedar and pine, where it sings from an exposed perch near the top of a sapling.
Photographing a singing bird is a particular pleasure, because for once the subject stays put. A male in full song will return to the same favourite perches again and again, which lets me set up quietly at a respectful distance and wait. The challenge here was the tangle of cedar needles — finding the one angle where the bird sat clear of clutter, framed by soft green.
I made this image in the Atlas Blidéen, south of Algiers, on a still morning in May. The light was diffused by high cloud, which suited the warbler's subtle yellows and kept the harsh contrast of midday off the scene.
The melodious warbler is not rare, but it is easy to overlook — a small yellow bird in a green tree. To me it is one of the defining voices of the Algerian spring, and a reminder that the most ordinary species often make the most rewarding portraits.
May 12, 2026
