This is a species which skulks in the undergrowth, creeping through bushes and low foliage, and which is very difficult to see except sometimes when singing from a prominent position.

The Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi included the common grasshopper warbler in the second volume of his Ornithologiae.

[2] In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a detailed description of the common grasshopper warbler in his Ornithologie.

[3] The common grasshopper warbler was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux.

[4] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.

The tail feathers are reddish-brown with faint transverse bars being visible in some individuals and the under-tail coverts are streaked.

[12] The song is an unmusical long, high-pitched reeling trill performed with beak held wide open and the whole body vibrating.

It is performed at any time of day from early morning until after the sun has set and is constantly to be heard from the arrival of the bird in spring until late July.

[12] In the breeding season, the common grasshopper warbler is found in damp or dry places with rough grass and bushes such as the edges of fens, clearings, neglected hedgerows, heaths, upland moors, gorse-covered areas, young plantations and felled woodland.

It seldom flies, soon diving back into cover, and when it alights it often raises and flares its tail to show its streaked under-tail coverts.

They walk or run along twigs with tail spread, fluttering their wings as they raise and lower them, often carrying a grass or leaf in their beak.

These are creamy white speckled with fine reddish spots, usually randomly distributed but sometimes merged into blotches or zones.

[12] The common grasshopper warbler is assessed by the IUCN in their Red List of Threatened Species as being of Least Concern.

As Europe amounts to about two thirds of its total range, the world population is estimated to be in the region of 3.4 to 13.2 million individuals.