Iberian chiffchaff, Telford

With the the controversial "Iberian" chiffchaff at Higher Penwortham still fresh in my mind, this evening I decided that it might be a good time to check out the universally acclaimed genuine article at Telford for comparison. It certainly looks the business, with a much more distinct supercillium than the Lancashire bird and crucially the correct song! Both of them are great birds though and very educational. I'm in the process of preparing a blog post to compare the two, but bear with me, it's a busy time of year.

Year: 193 (Iberian chiffchaff). My third Iberian chiffchaff in the UK, the previous two were within a week of each other in 2010, at Poterric Carr in Yorkshire and Wentwood Forest in South Wales.

The bird was doing a circuit. First it started singing in the wood, then it appeared low down in this hawthorn bush still singing, and then made it's way to the top of the bush, before finally flying to the top of a birch tree and singing away for about 3 minutes. Then it flew back into the wood and went silent for 10 minutes before repeating.

This is perhaps more willow warbler like than a typical chiffchaff.

You can see a video of the Telford bird here, and a second video here.