Thursday, 15 October 2015

An Interesting Chiffchaff

This Chiffy was ringed today on the Teifi Marshes Reserve.  It is very different to/from the usual ones we get here.

* On the face, back and upper wings the overall colour is markedly paler and greyer than the usual olive-brown.


* On the belly, flanks, and under-wing there is no sign of the usual yellow or green tones, the only suggestion being a few yellowish-buff feathers in the inner axilliaries.


* The complete white eye-ring stands out particularly prominently.


This is a bird fledged this year - it has four unmoulted juvenile greater coverts on each wing. Biometrically it is indistinguishable from a 'normal' Chiffchaff, and it didn't call.  Did it come over with the Yellow-brows?  We'll probably never know.


1 comment:

  1. Certainly not from around here. Got lots of good Tristisy features going for it. I think there might be a paper on Tristis ID on the WOS website.

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