Bird Sightings: Chiffchaff

Photograph © Grahame Thompson
Stornoway Castle Grounds - Isle of Lewis - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles)
24th October, 2006

Grahame is one of two British Ornithological Society ringers on the island, he does the East side. His usual areas are the Castle Grounds and Aiginish, plus a whole heap of other sites depending on time of year and species!

Highlights of this ringing session were a Blackcap, and the Chiffchaff above.

Chiffchaff

WI Rare migrant breeder, (approx 3 singing records annually? - Stornoway). Passage visitor
Listen to a chiffchaff (RSPB site)

At 10 - 11cm, the chiffchaff is a tiny warbler about the size of a wren.

It has been described as elusive, active, confident (and exasperating!) in nature.

With olive-brown upperparts the chiffchaff is very similar to a willow warbler, but is visually distinguished from it by having having very dark, blackish legs.

A chiffchaff has a pale-yellow eye-stripe, which has a dark smudge going through it.

The underparts of the chiffchaff are whitish, pale-buff, tending toward yellowish-buff in autumn (especially in the immature bird). In autumn the chiffchaff's plumage becomes generally brighter.

A chiffchaff has brown wings which have no wingbars, and it has a brown tail.

The chiffchaff has the pointed beak of an insect-eater. It favours mature woodland with well developed undergrowth, where it darts about picking insects from trees, and also catching them in flight. It can briefly hover. Fruit, and occasionally nectar are also part of the chiffchaff's autumn and winter diet.

Between 700,000 and 800,000 pairs breed in the UK in summer, nesting either on the ground or in the branches of bushes, laying 4 - 9 eggs, which are white with dark-speckles.

The chiffchaff is a scarce bird in the Western Isles, it is most often seen on its migration journey during October, and November, ( a few in the spring). Generally less than 50 records a year, with a just a couple of probable breeding pairs.

Most of the UK breeding birds migrate to the Eastern Mediterranean, India and South of the Sahara in Africa in late August, early September, leaving only 500 to a thousand resident birds to over-winter in the UK.

Distinguished from the willow warbler by having dark legs, and by it's song which instead of being the melodic warble of a willow warbler sounds a bit like "chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff..."

See a photograph of a chiffchaff taken by Kim Park in Gisla, Isle of Lewis on April, 21st, 2006

thewesternisles.co.uk

Bird Sightings : Hebrides : Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff

Phylloscopus collybita

Chiffchaff