41. Willow Warbler This active little bird is another ‘palearctic’ visitor from Eurasia, spreading out from October to April across the whole of sub-Saharan Africa each year. It’s a long way to fly if you’re only 11cm long. During those months, it is “very common”, they say, but this was a first for me. I caught sight of him in one of the hedges around the Africama garden. Hedges are ideal for small birds, and there are a good number here: with the leaves on the outside and a large space inside, criss-crossed with useful branches for perching, roosting and breeding. Intruders, like myself trying to spot who is in there making that noise, struggle to get a good view. This garden has, in its wilder parts, a good variety of habitats: I hope that will be maintained. I have enjoyed getting to know some of the invisible aerial ‘pathways’ that some of these smaller birds often follow, the favourite bushes and trees from which to proclaim territorial rights in song, or on which to find the new sticky buds that attract lots of delicious insects, the small fruits, and the patches of reeds or grass good for finding seeds. Birds of AFRICAMA House 87