Common Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita 嘰喳柳鶯
Category I. Scarce to rare winter visitor and passage migrant to open-country areas with shrubs.
IDENTIFICATION
Jan. 2014, Martin Hale.
11-12 cm. Similar in size and shape to Dusky Warbler. Differs in having all dark bill and legs, greenish edges to wing coverts and flight feathers, slight olive tone to upperparts and slightly less distinct head pattern. In fresh autumn plumage may show very diffuse pale wing bar.
VOCALISATIONS
Call is a mournful ‘syoo’ or ‘siyoo’ that often falls in pitch.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
An open-country species, most records are from Mai Po NR or nearby areas. Also recorded at Long Valley and on Po Toi and Lamma.
OCCURRENCE
The first record of Common Chiffchaff occurred on 16 March 1986 (Melville 1987), and there were a further three in December 1988 (Melville and Viney 1989) and February 1990 and 1993. There was then a 15-year gap before the next record on 2 December 2008, which was followed by birds on 19 October 2011 and 1 January to 5 February 2014.
It has occurred each winter period since 2016/17 in line with an increase in observer activity but remains rare with fewer than 20 records in total. Extreme dates are 10 October and 16 March.
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
Insectivorous, it forages at low to medium height in bushes, shrubs and other vegetation in open-country areas. Unobtrusive, appears to call infrequently here.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Breeds from Europe east at least as far as Lake Baikal, including north Kazakhstan, northwest China and northwest Mongolia; winters milder parts of northwest Europe south to North Africa and east through Middle East to the Indian subcontinent (Clement et al. 2020). In China tristis breeds in Xinjiang and there are scattered records across lowland areas of migrants and wintering birds (Liu and Chen 2020).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend increasing.
Clement, P., J. del Hoyo, N. Collar, G. M. Kirwan, and D. A. Christie (2020). Common Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.comchi1.01
Liu, Y. and Chen, Y. H. (eds) (2020). The CNG Field Guide to the Birds of China (in Chinese). Hunan Science and Technology Publication House, Changsha.
Melville, D. S. (1987). Three species new to Hong Kong and (eastern) China. Hong Kong Bird Report 1986: 104-106.
Melville, D. S. and C. A. Viney (1989). Second record of Chiffchaff for Hong Kong and eastern China. Hong Kong Bird Report 1988: 84-87.
