chiff chaff mimicking (1 Viewer)

[felthad]

When at Blashford resevoir (Dorset) today I heard a chiff chaff singing. Next he did something that sounded like a willow warbler but not quite right. I moved close and the bird continued.
He then began to do alternate both songs accurately starting with chiff chaff into a willow warbler phrase or start the other way round. There was also a lot of ad lib changing the chiff chaff phrasing speeding it up fatser.
Views were difficult but it looked like a chiff chaff mostly..dark legs, not much of a stripe above the eye, browney above, yellow/cream below.

Is this sort of thing usual- I have never heard one doing both calls before.

 

[joannec]

Viewing was difficult, you say. Perhaps there was a chiff chaff and a willow warbler.

 

[London Birder]

there was a mixed singer (Chiff x WW) a few springs ago in a local (to me) park ... not that I ever heard it

 

[Keith Reeder]

A few years back I read a piece in Birdwatch by Bill Oddie where he discussed an apparent trend he'd noticed in chiffers with a split personality - much the same sort of thing as this, as I recall...

 

[Dave J]

Not the most likely option i know, but did you rule out Iberian Chiffchaff ? It depends whether you thought the second part of the song really sounded like Willow warbler. Iberian usually does 'chiff - chiff - chiff - chiff ' four or five times, followed by 'hweet' and then a very un-chiffchaff like section of song . May sound daft, but things are finally on the move now, with the Alpine Swifts in Lowestoft and Great Spotted Cuckoo in Holland. Probably just a Chiffchaff, but you never know.

Dave

 

[felthad]

Viewing was difficult, you say. Perhaps there was a chiff chaff and a willow warbler.

It was definately the same bird. All I meant by viewing was difficult is those were the only markings I could see- (ie I could not see the length of the primaries to secondaries). As I said one song mingled directly to the next I couyld see it singing. There were no other warblers in the bush only a blackbiord and a blueTit.

 

[felthad]

Not the most likely option i know, but did you rule out Iberian Chiffchaff ? It depends whether you thought the second part of the song really sounded like Willow warbler. Iberian usually does 'chiff - chiff - chiff - chiff ' four or five times, followed by 'hweet' and then a very un-chiffchaff like section of song . May sound daft, but things are finally on the move now, with the Alpine Swifts in Lowestoft and Great Spotted Cuckoo in Holland. Probably just a Chiffchaff, but you never know.

Dave

-the Willow warbler mimmick was the descending song call (an exact copy) in style. Did wonder if it was a diffferent race of chiff, but if there is other examples of birds copying then more likely it was a intelligent singer with a wide repetoir. Thinking of it from a natural selection point of view copying willow warbler song might be an advantage if they share the same habitat. In addition to warding other competing chiffs you could alos keep willow warblers away from your terratory and resources- perhpas any bird that mimicks song can use this advantge so there is a tendancy for it to evovle in the population.

 

[stuart winter]

A good mnemonic for describing and remembering Iberian Chiffchaff is reciting the
name of the Sixties pop band: Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Titch...
The cadence is spot on and really emphasises the stacatto start of Iberian Chiffy song, which is Chiffchaff-like, and finishes with a downward flurry a la Willow Warbler.

S

 

[lou salomon]

most of these mixed singers are pure chiffers. i saw one myself a decade ago. it's weird to hear a clear "chiff - chaff - chiff - chaff" suddendly transcending into the WW-cascade, isn't it?

 

[London Birder]

just out of interest, are these reports of mixed singers a fairly recent phenomenon or are there old records in the literature

 

[Xenospiza]

I once heard a Willow Warbler (by looks) "also singing like a Chiffchaff".
Another mixed singer (seen well enough to exclude rare warblers) I heard last year. I described its song as "cheelp-cheelp-chüülp-chüülp-cheelp-chalp-cheelp-chalp-dü-dü-dü-dü-dü": it didn't seem to have "pure songs" at all.

 

[London Birder]

weirdly enough I found a mixed singer this morning ... looks like a regular collybita Chiffy but giving both pure Chiff and Willow Warbler song, though more often a mix of the two ... the chiff note sounded more like 'chu' 'chu' 'chu' or 'chip' 'chip' 'chip before turning into Willow Warbler phrases'

 

[POP]

weirdly enough I found a mixed singer this morning ... looks like a regular collybita Chiffy but giving both pure Chiff and Willow Warbler song, though more often a mix of the two ... the chiff note sounded more like 'chu' 'chu' 'chu' or 'chip' 'chip' 'chip before turning into Willow Warbler phrases'

Talking of singing Henry and I visited St Pauls yesterday,we went to hear David Attenborough practising in the Whispering Gallery."Steward A V&T if you please why I give a rendering of Onward Christian Soldiers,certainly a large one, its not every day we are given a Chiff Charf recital."

POP

 

[KnockerNorton]

just out of interest, are these reports of mixed singers a fairly recent phenomenon or are there old records in the literature

I know of records from the 70s in E Yorks, and one from the 60s (I think) in Scotland. They seem fairly frequent in E Yorks, and are widespread in the UK. There are confirmed records of some of them being hybrids (some from measurements, others from mixed pairings of colour-ringed birds), but as for the rest, who knows?

Hybrids would certainly fit a little theory I have about the E Yorks birds in Hull. Chiffchaffs are in the minority there, as there isn't an awful lot of habitat, and many of them are in suboptimal stuff with a good load of WW. My idea is that these Chiffchaffs in the marginal habitat are maybe hybridising with WWs out of lack of choice.

 

[iainhawk]

I came acoss a mixed singer as well. in 2001 in a wood near to Oxford- i was doing a common bird census there and the warbler was doing a mixed song much like the one described above- a bit of chiffchaff and then the decending trill of a willow warbler.
The next census day there was a warbler in the same place (presumably the same bird) and i managed to get a recording of it- it was a different song- but sounded like an strange willow warbler.

I will try to dig the recording out and post it in the next day or so- see if this compares to the songs reported above.

 

[KnockerNorton]

They seem to do a variety, even the same bird. Common ones are the chiffchaff start and WW trill end, or the other way round, and some just give a long sequence of either 'chiff' or 'chaff' notes, which sounds a bit like a WW that is stuck on the first note of its song.