Chiffchaff

Above: Chiffchaff.
Below: Willow Warbler.

The Chiffchaff is a member of the warbler family and is mostly a summer visiting migrant to the UK although a few individuals remain over winter each year. The majority that do migrate arrive early, sometimes in early March but usually by the end of March they can be heard singing in most places that are their preferred habitat. By that I mean woodland, heaths and hedges. They depart quite late too, often lingering until October, although numbers start to reduce in August and September.

They are quite a drab bird being plain pale brown on their back and wings with a little darker colour on the primaries. The head is also pale brown and has a pale buff eye-brow stripe. The chin, belly, breast and vent are all buffy white and may also have a slight yellow wash or patches of pale yellow wash. The amount of the yellow wash may increase during the summer as Autumn approaches. As you can see from the photos on the left there is little to distinguish it from another common species of warbler that visits the UK for the summer, the willow warbler (shown below left). The only really visible difference is the legs. The chiffchaff has very dark, almost black legs as you can can clearly see in the top photo. The Willow warbler has paler pinkish brown legs just about visible in the bottom photo. This is a good indication of which species you are dealing with, if you can see the legs and if the light is good to see the true colour, that is. Failing that the only other way is through their songs, which are very different. The chiffchaff gets his name from his song which is a series of 'chiff' and 'chaff' notes but not in any particular order. The willow warblers song is a little more 'musical' and more typical of a warbler although fairly brief.

If your browser has a helper application for sound then you can listen to these bird songs by clicking the links below:

To hear the chiffchaff click here.
To hear the willow warbler click here.

I'm not going to list sites to find chiffchaffs as they are really very common. Just listen out for their distinctive song or there soft huweet call. They are not hard to get close to as they are fairly confiding compared to some birds. Your best chance will be where the bushes or trees are fairly low in height otherwise they could be high up and out of range.