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Friday, 9 January 2026

Siberian chiffchaff, Glazebury WWTW


I called in at Glazebury WWTW this morning hoping to catch up with the Siberian chiffchaff that was reported yesterday. There were several chiffchaffs on the beds and occasionally flying up into the trees, including the bird in the photo which I'm pretty certain is Siberian chiffchaff. 

Call is the most important identification feature and without hearing it, it's virtually impossible to be sure, however this bird is very brown on it's upperparts and buffy below, without any obvious olive on the crown or mantle. Crucially, it has a buff supercilium and rusty looking ear-coverts, as well as very black looking legs. I checked all of these features out in the field as well as in the photos when I got home.

I tried a bit of playback and the bird responded immediately, flying up into the tree near where I was standing, but unfortunately it refused to call itself. After spending about 20 minutes with this bird and satisfying myself that I wasn't likely to get any better photos, I moved about 10m further along the fence and viewed another bed. After another 10 minutes I heard a Siberian chiffchaff calling from the area where I had watched the bird in the photo, but unfortunately I couldn't be sure that it was the same bird so although I'm happy enough that there was a Sibe present, I can't say for sure that it's bird in the photos....if you see what I mean.  






Note the spindly black legs.






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