Anatolian chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita bevirostris, photographed at Paphos sewage works this morning. Between November and March this is by far the commonest race of chiffchaff in Cyprus, with 80-90% of all birds being this race and their calls are everywhere. This wasn't always known to be the case though. Prior to my visit in December 2014, Anatolian chiffchaff had apparently never been recorded on the island and chiffchaffs in winter in Cyprus were considered to be either P.c. collybita or P.c. abientus, with a few P.c. tristis (Siberian chiffchaff).
However in 2014 I recorded a call and based on plumage and call I posted it on Xeno-Canto (opens in a new window) as P.c. brevirostris. I was oblivious to the fact that this race had apparently never previously been recorded in Cyprus. The resultant 95 emails I received from various people including three internationally recognised chiffchaff experts, turned our knowledge of chiffchaffs in Cyprus on it's head. Far from being unknown, Anatolian chiffchaff was actually one of the commonest birds on the island in winter. Unlike P.c. collybita and P.c abientus which call 'huweeet', Anatolian chiffchaff has a call more like Siberian chiffchaff 'peep' and previously all of the 'peeps' on the island had erroneously been considered to be Siberian. My recording changed all that. Amazing that a casual recording taken on my phone could make such an impact.
The full story is in a blog post from 2014 (opens in a new window). Back then some authorities considered brevirostis a form of abientus, but about five years ago it was given full subspecies status.
Today there were flocks of these birds at the sewage works, I estimated at least 50 in total. Birds flycatching and 'peeping' in all of the bushes and hedgerows. Just occasionally I would hear a 'huweeet' but this is the only place where I hear that call. Everywhere else I go it's 'peep'. There were also several birds singing today,
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