Common Chiffchaff

The common chiffchaff is a leaf warbler. It is migratory, wintering in southern and western Europe, southern Asia and north Africa. I saw it in Keoladeo NP, India in November 2025. I saw ssp. tristis, known as the Siberian chiffchaff, which breeds in Siberia and winters in the lower Himalayas, but is also regularly recorded in western Europe in the winter. It is dull, gray or brownish above and whitish below, with little yellow in the plumage, and the buff-white supercilium is often longer than the western subspecies. Birds of the World says it is "so nondescript that wing bars are considered sporty, a splash of yellow is eccentric, and a dash of orange would be unthinkable." 

Illustration of ssp. tristis from Birds of the World. 

I was walking back to our motorized rickshaw when I saw this tiny bird high up in a tree and started taking photos. Our guide, Ashok, told me the name and I had to have him spell it out for me, going over it several times. I'd never heard of it and it seemed like a really weird name for a bird. It is named for its chiff-chaff-chiff-chaff-chiff-chaff song. 

Range from Birds of the World.