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Common Chiffchaff

Common Chiffchaff

Phylloscopus collybita

Identify the Common Chiffchaff by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Common Chiffchaff is a small, olive-brown leaf warbler of open woodland across Europe and much of the Palearctic, named after its simple, repetitive “chiff-chaff” song. It winters in southern and western Europe, North Africa, the Sahel and southern Asia. It has several subspecies and close relatives, some now treated as separate species.

Did you know?

  • Its name comes straight from its song.
  • The naturalist Gilbert White was among the first to tell it apart from similar warblers by song.

Voice

Song
Call
Alarm call

About the species

Identification

A small, greenish-grey leaf warbler with paler underparts and a pale supercilium, dark legs and a short bill. It is told from Willow Warbler by its shorter, rounder wings, often browner tone (especially in autumn), the soft “hweet” call and its simple “chiff-chaff” song. It often dips its tail.

Family

Sylviidae

Size

Tiny (goldcrest)

Colours

brown, green, white, yellow

About the habitat

Open woodland of many kinds, especially fairly rich mixed forest with spruce and tall trees, as well as deciduous woods, parks and gardens; on migration also reedbeds and scrub.

Diet

Mainly small insects, their larvae and other invertebrates found among leaves and branches; some berries in autumn.

Behaviour

An active foliage-gleaner that moves through branches in short hops, often dipping its tail. Males sing persistently from treetops well into summer and defend territories vigorously. The female builds a domed nest on or near the ground and does most of the incubation and feeding of the young.

Sources

Photo: Andreas Trepte, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chiffchaff - Phylloscopus collybita (cropped).jpg

Sound: Carlo Fracasso, XC791235, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/791235

Sound: Benoît Van Hecke, XC538931, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/538931

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC919283, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/919283

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions + Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0; Wikipedia: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_chiffchaff

See also