Chiffchaff (1 Viewer)

Hi
I took this pic of a chiffchaff today, the pic is ok but doesn't do the bird justice. it was in pristine condition but is colouring puzzled me a little.
it was very brown above and no yellow or green anywhere on the bird and no sign of an eye stripe.
I know its a chiffchaff but is it unusual or another "race" maybe eastern?

Looks "normal" to me in this pic...

spuggyhawk said:

Hi
I took this pic of a chiffchaff today, the pic is ok but doesn't do the bird justice. it was in pristine condition but is colouring puzzled me a little.
it was very brown above and no yellow or green anywhere on the bird and no sign of an eye stripe.
I know its a chiffchaff but is it unusual or another "race" maybe eastern?

Click to expand...

Hi Spuggy... the UTC's appear to be yellow washed.

Yes, probably of an Eastern persuasion (smart ain't they?), perhaps the author of ''50 shades of grey''...might follow up with ''50 shades of Chiff Chaff'', now that would be really interesting!

Hello

This does not quite fit with tristis, the yellowish hue still found in the belly and face, and too much yellow on the side if the breast; though there were no close green shade to reflects, legs not completely black, and the flank color is quite uniform and rich IMO, crown and bill is also wrong.

The best chose I would say fulvescens/abietinus , but still the color of the mantle (which seems grey her) not ruled out?
http://www.birds.kz/subspecies.php?sspecies=491&l=en

However, this bird show some green on wing pp at least in some way can seeing them, and the super.does not well developed as Ken's pervious bird? so I would go with this race.

Thanks guys
unfortunately the photo as in a lot of cases does not truly represent the actual bird (true colour wise).. Ken the yellow wash was not apparent in the actual bird but yes it is there in the photo.
I'm still fairly new to bird watching so my descriptions may not be up to scratch but if I was describing what I saw I would say brown upper parts, buff flanks with some buff spilling into the breast area, under parts my best would be beige including the vent area, I could not really pick out any yellow or green hues.
I watched the bird for a good while because it seemed so different from most other chiffchaffs i'd seen, also I don't know if its me but its eye ring seems more exaggerated on this bird.
Anyway...Its a chiffchaff
Jon