Nesting of Moustached Warbler Acrocephalus melanopogon (Temminck, 1823) in the South-East of Ukraine
The territory of Ukraine is located between the areas of two subspecies of Moustached Warbler Acrocephalus melanopogon (Temminck, 1823) - A. m. melanopogon (Temminck, 1823) and A. m. albiventris (Kazakov, 1974). In the North-West Black Sea region, the nesting of the nominative subspecies has been proven, while the second one nests in the East Azov Sea region. By 2016, neither in the North Azov Sea region, nor in the South-East of Ukraine, this species was not observed. However, there are certain meetings of solitary birds in the adjacent regions during migrations on the Eastern Syvash on 21.10.2006 and westwards of the Don mouth on the Mius River bank on 05.09.2011. It was photographed for the first time on 24.04.2016 on the Shaitanka River near the Novodonetske village Velykonovosilkivskyi district of Donetsk region. Its nesting is reliably proven on 30.04.2020 on the Mokri Yaly River of the same region. On this river, there are plant communities with different proportions of common reed (Phragmites australis) and narrowleaf cattali (Typha angustifolia) grow in some places around open areas of the water area. It's on such sections of the river the Moustached Warbler males were observed. On a 600 m long section of the river, 3-4 males were observed. 2 males were caught, which were assigned to the subspecies of A. m. albiventris by color and measurements. On 19.05.2020 there were 5 eggs in one of the found nests. Egg sizes, mm: 18.0x13.0; 18.0x12.9; 16.9x12.9; 17.6x12.9; 17.9x12.9. The nest was located at a height of 250 mm above the water. Nest measurements, mm: D=85; d=50; H=53; h=43. It is suggested that in the South-East of Ukraine, birds appeared on nesting grounds due to the increase in the range of the subspecies in the north-west direction over the last 20 years due to climate warming. It is quite likely to find new localities of the Moustached Warblers on small rivers, large ponds or reservoirs in the southern part of Donetsk, eastern part of Zaporizhzhia or south – eastern part of Dnipropetrovsk regions.