The Sakhalin grasshopper warbler was formerly considered conspecific.

This small passerine bird breeds in southern Siberia, northeastern China and Korea.

It is a species found in lowland and coastal regions, nesting in forests or thickets.

The adult has an unstreaked olive-brown back, uniformly grey breast and buff underparts, with unmottled dull orange undertail coverts.

The song is a short phrase, loud and distinctive; nothing like the insect-like reeling of European Locustella species, and more musical than that of Pallas's grasshopper warbler.