chiffchaff

The chiffchaff's song is unmistakeable because it repeatedly chants "chiff chaff".

Barry, from Maghull, entered his picture of a common chiffchaff for the Wilko Wild Bird Calendar competition.

SHARP-EARED birder Robin Sandham found North Wales' first Iberian Chiffchaff while cycling through forestry near Penmachno last week.

The chiffchaff, whitethroat and blackcap are all types of which bird?

But at last, on the same day as I spotted the osprey, lo and behold there was to be heard the monosyllabic chanting of the year's first chiffchaff. Like the osprey, this very ordinary sounding and looking bird, minuscule, plain brown with just a hint of yellow on its underparts, has probably also journeyed from Africa.

A busy, olive-brown warbler, the chiffchaff flits through trees and shrubs, wagging its tail distinctively while looking for insects to pick out and snap while flying.

Also: Try our garden birds quiz to see if you know your Chiffchaff from your Blue Tit

But the bitterly cold weather was welcomed by one little fella - a rare Siberian chiffchaff was spotted in London yesterday, 3,000 miles from its usual habitat.

True, we damn near broke our neck craning out of the office window to confirm the sighting, but lo, there was the crimson-breasted chiffchaff in all her glory.

"In Black Hawk Down, that scene where Delta Force is leaving Mogadishu and a soldier tries to call his wife," Budney says, "you hear a chiffchaff in the background!" In real life, the little birds called chiffchaffs live in Europe.

IF you haven't had the pleasure of hearing the unmistakeable song of a chiffchaff so far this spring, then you surely will very soon.