Common Chiffchaff
Phylloscopus collybita · Warblers
Common Chiffchaff
Stodmarsh, 2 May 2026
A Chiffchaff in the willows at Stodmarsh, one of the first migrants back into Britain each spring, and increasingly one that skips the migration altogether, with small numbers now overwintering in the south as the climate has warmed. It is a bird of woodland edge and scrub across Europe, and it sings its name from the top of a tree.
Almost indistinguishable by plumage from the closely related Willow Warbler. Darker legs are the more reliable visual cue, and in practice most birders separate the two by song: the chiffchaff's flat, two-note "chiff-chaff" against the willow warbler's descending, more musical cascade.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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