Grey Chiffchaff, Stuttgart, Germany (1 Viewer)

[lou salomon]

Hi folks,
I wonder how grey a nominate collybita Chiffchaff can get. And how to separate it from a fulvescens/tristis type. One thing I usually check is the peachy coloured cheek in tristis and of course its "peep" call. This bird from yesterday showed no yellwish or greenish tones at all, maybe a very very slight green hue to upperparts. But it called like a collybita ("ouit") and there's no rosy or peachy tone to cheeks. Any comments?

 

[dwatsonbirder]

There appears to be some (albeit diffuse) yellowish tones to the supercilium (particularly over the eye), and the almost lime green fringing to the remiges shown by tristis is missing. The mental search image for tristis for me is of something approaching a frosty Bonelli's warbler with dark lores. I can't say I've a huge amount of experience with fulvescens, though the few candidates I've seen in the UK have generally been quite swarthy in their plumage tones, but again, lacking any yellow within the super, underparts or vent. As chiffchaff appears to be a clinal species, the amount of individual variation across the region must be practically unlimited.

 

[lou salomon]

Thanks, Daniel. Yes, I observed the yellwish tone in the super and didn't even think about tristis in the field since it called like a collybita. I was just surprised when seeing the photos of how grey it was and wondered if it really could be within variation of our nominate Chiffchaff or, let's say abietinus.

 

[Jane Turner]

I think birds like this are non-uncommon - and often get reported as tristis. Like you like my Sibe Chiffs to be brown and buff, not grey and white. My entirely unproven hypothesis is that they are eastern birds.