Chiffchaff

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Chiffchaff
Chiffchaff - Phylloscopus collybita.jpg

Chiffchaff ( Phylloscopus collybita )

Systematics
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
Superfamily : Sylvioidea
Family : Warbler-like (Phylloscopidae)
Genre : Warbler ( Phylloscopus )
Type : Chiffchaff
Scientific name
Phylloscopus collybita
( Vieillot , 1817)
The chiffchaff sings whatever it's called.

The Chiffchaff or Willow Warbler ( Phylloscopus collybita ) is a species of bird from the family of the warbler-like (Phylloscopidae). This warbler inhabits large parts of the Palearctic from northeast Spain and Ireland to the east to Kolyma in Siberia . Chiffchaffes are small, without any noticeable markings and mostly move under cover in higher vegetation. They are therefore most likely to stand out for their distinctive singing, to which the species owes its onomatopoeic German name. The animals inhabit a wide range of forested habitats and are also common in parks and the leafy outskirts of cities. The diet consists mainly of small and soft-skinned insects. The chiffchaff is a short to long-distance migrant, depending on its geographical distribution . European birds overwinter in the Persian Gulf , the Mediterranean , in the oases of the Sahara , in the dry savannah south of the Sahara and in the East African highlands. The species is a very common breeding bird in Europe and is not endangered.

description

Chiffchaff are small, compact and short-winged warblers with a fairly large head and without any noticeable markings. The body length is 10–12 cm, the weight 6–10 g. The sexes do not differ externally or in terms of weight, but males are slightly more long-winged than females. During the breeding season in Saxony-Anhalt , for example, males of the nominate form caught had an average wing length of 60.8 mm and an average weight of 8.2 g; Females reached an average of only 54.5 mm and an average weight of 8.4 g.

The upper side is grayish-brownish green, the rump is often a little lighter green. The throat, underside of the torso and under tail-coverts are dirty white with individually very variable proportions of yellow and beige on the throat and chest. Especially in autumn, the flanks are often painted beige-brown. Flight feathers and control feathers are gray-brown, the edges of the outer flags are narrowly lined with yellow-green. A yellowish stripe above the eyes is clear in front of the eye, but usually only indistinctly behind the eye. The dark eye stripe divides the light eye ring continuously into a lower and an upper half. The area below the eyes and the ear covers are quite dark, so that the lower part of the light ring under the eyes clearly contrasts with it. The short and fine beak is mostly light orange at the base and on the sides, otherwise dark horn-colored. The legs are usually dark brown or gray-black, rarely lighter brown.

Differentiation from Fitis

Compare Chiffchaff and Fitis

In Central Europe, the chiffchaff is most likely to be confused with the very similar and also common fitis ( Phylloscopus trochilus ); they are twin species . The Fitis is a bit slimmer and more long-winged than the Chiffchaff. The legs of the Fitis are usually noticeably lighter, the stripe above the eye is longer and more pronounced, especially behind the eye. The hand swing projection, i.e. the protrusion of the hand swing over the screen springs , is much larger in the Fitis. Furthermore, in the chiffchaff, the fifth hand swing from the inside has a narrowing on the outer flag, which is missing there in the Fitis. However, this reliable distinguishing feature can only be recognized if you hold the animals in your hand.

On the basis of the song, however, the distinction is unproblematic, this is very different for the two species. The Fitis sings in melodiously sloping melodies, whereas the Chiffchaff can easily be recognized by its two-syllable chiffchaff-Zalp singing. The call of the chiffchaff is short and hard ("huit") and of the fitis it is clearly two-syllable ("hu-it") and increases in pitch.

Vocalizations

The distinctive, rather monotonous singing to which the German name refers sounds like "zilp-zalp-zelp-zilp-zalp" , with the individual elements changing in pitch. In between, 2 to 5 hard sounds that sound like "trrt" are often incorporated ( listen to vocals ? / I ). The singing takes place from waiting , often from branches that are not yet leafy in the inner edge area of ​​the crown of larger trees or while moving in the treetops. The call that is often heard in autumn is a simple, soft, whistling and at the end emphasized “huid” . Audio file / audio sample

Aggressive behavior is often accompanied by quick trills "ditztz ..." . Outside the breeding season there is a faded “sfië” .

The song of the Siberian Chiffchaff (subspecies P. c. Tristis or P. c. Fulvescens , see section Systematics) differs significantly from the song of the western subspecies. After the introductory "trrt" sounds, it consists of a loud, soft and melodic trill such as "wi-di wii-di wii-di wii widi wii" , "chiwi chiwi chiiwi ..." , "chivet chivi ..." or "ip-chip ip-chiip chip-chiiep chip cheee" . This chant is no longer recognized as native to the western subspecies and therefore no longer triggers a singing response.

Chiffchaff after moulting in fresh plumage on the autumn migration in early September

Mauser

The juvenile moult is a partial moult and takes place between the beginning of July and the end of October, depending on the distribution. It includes the small plumage, one to three screen springs and one to three control springs. The postnuptial moult of the adult birds occurs as a full moult between mid-July and late September, rarely until mid-October, depending on the end of the second brood. The pre-breeding season partial moult is individually and also subspecies-specific to different extents; it can fail completely, but besides small plumage it also includes wings and shock springs to a variable extent. This moult usually takes place in the winter quarters between the end of December and the end of February, but sometimes only from March to April.

distribution and habitat

Distribution of the chiffchaff (yellow = occurrence only during the breeding season, light green = occurrence during the breeding season, in small numbers also overwintering, green = year-round occurrence, blue = winter quarters)

This warbler inhabits large parts of the Palearctic from northeast Spain and Ireland to the east to Kolyma in Siberia . The northern limit of the distribution is fairly uniformly 66 ° to 70 ° N in Scandinavia and Finland, 69 ° N in European Russia and 69 ° to 72 ° N in Siberia. The southern border of the closed distribution runs through northeast Spain, northern Greece, the Ukraine and southern Russia, northern Kazakhstan and through Siberia at 62 ° N. To the south there are spatially isolated occurrences in the Crimea and in an area from southern Turkmenia via Armenia to the Caucasus and the north Turkey.

In Europe, the species has expanded its range significantly to the north and northwest over the last 200 years or so. Schleswig-Holstein was not settled until 1850, Denmark from 1872. In the Netherlands, the species expanded its range into the 1990s. In Ireland, the species has also spread strongly since around 1850 and in Scotland, too, the chiffchaff has shifted its distribution limit far north after 1950. The main reason for this area expansion is considered to be fairly uniformly the increase and expansion of suitable habitats due to the destruction and drainage of the moors and the subsequent forest development as well as generally due to afforestation.

The Zilpzalp occurs from the lowlands to high mountains; Due to the connection to the forest, the contiguous settlement area here only extends up to the tree line, in Europe up to around 1400–1500 m altitude. The highest evidence of breeding was found in the Alps at altitudes between 1800 and 2060 m above sea level.

The species inhabits a wide range of forested habitats and is also common in parks and the leafy outskirts of cities. Forest areas with a structured tree layer, well-developed shrub layer and at least gaps in herb layer and appropriately structured green areas are preferred. The species hardly occurs in uniform stands with largely no undergrowth, such as in closed beech forests . In Central Europe, the highest settlement densities are reached in alder forests and moist alluvial forests with 7 to 14 districts / 10 ha. The settlement density decreases sharply to the north, so in south-western Finland maximum densities of 11 to 14 breeding pairs / km² were found.

Systematics

The subspecies of the chiffchaff and the distribution and delimitation of these subspecies has been discussed controversially for a long time. Due to molecular genetic and song differences, four previous subspecies of the chiffchaff were separated as separate species or subspecies of one of these new species at the end of the 1990s: P. canariensis , Iberienzilpzalp ( P. ibericus ) and Bergzilpzalp ( P. sindianus ), with P. sindianus now P. (collybita) lorenzii contains. Currently six subspecies are usually recognized. The transitions are often fluent (clinical), the distribution information given here is largely based on Glutz von Blotzheim and Bauer :

  • Phylloscopus collybita collybita ( Vieillot , 1817 ): The nominate form breeds from northeastern Spain to the east to western Poland, to the western Black Sea coast and to western Turkey. To the north, the breeding area extends to northern Scotland, Denmark and southern Sweden.
  • P. c. abietinus ( Nilsson , 1819 ): The breeding area includes Scandinavia without southern Sweden and eastern Europe from western Poland to around the Urals . The subspecies can hardly be distinguished from the nominate form by field ornithology, on average in large series it is a little grayer on the top and a little lighter on the underside with fewer yellow and green tones. The wing length is slightly larger.
  • P. c. brevirostris ( Strickland , 1837): breeding bird in northwestern Turkey. Compared to P. c. abietinus , the upper side is even darker and grayer and the lower side is even more whitish with a few yellowish dots, the upper breast is tinted light brown.
  • P. c. caucasicus ( Loskot , 1991): breeding bird in the lower regions of the Caucasus . The subspecies is very similar to P. c. abietine .
  • P. c. menzbieri ( Shestoperov , 1937): Kopet Dag in northeastern Iran . Upper side also tinted even more gray than in P. c. abietinus , only on the rump and the wings with a remainder of a greenish-yellow tint, the underside is whitish with almost no yellow tones.
  • P. c. tristis ( Blyth , 1843): breeding bird in central and eastern Siberia. The top of the head, the neck and the upper back are brown-gray without a greenish tone; only the rump is tinted slightly green. The ear covers, neck and chest sides are light rust beige. In the winter of the year of birth, many individuals show an indicated light-colored wing band. The legs are black. Glutz von Blotzheim and Bauer recognize another subspecies P. c. fulvescens , which occurs from the Ural foothills in northeastern Russia east of the Pechora over western Siberia to the Yenisei , to the western Sayan , the Tannu-ola mountains and to the Mongolian southeast of the Altai . The subspecies is not recognized by other authors and is instead labeled P. c. tristis , whose distribution area would be correspondingly larger.
Aphids are the main food of the chiffchaff. Here the species Aphis farinosa with a caring ant

Foraging and Nutrition

Chiffchaffes look for their food mainly in the middle and upper parts of the treetops at heights of 10 m and more, more rarely also in the lower parts of the treetops and in the herbaceous and shrub layers and only exceptionally on the ground. They are in motion almost continuously and search for leaves and twigs in fluttering jumps and by hanging on branches, but also make short shaking flights in the open air space above the vegetation or over small pools. They often hit their tails downwards.

The main food is a wide range of small insects and their stages of development, less often small spiders, woodlice and snails. The nestlings are mainly fed with small and soft-skinned invertebrates. In addition, berries and other fruits are eaten to a lesser extent in the breeding season, but somewhat more on the migration in late summer and autumn. The stomach contents of Chiffchaffes caught between August and October in Switzerland consisted of 22% aphids , 18.6% larvae of holometabolic insects, 13.9% hymenoptera (of which almost 1/5 ants), 13.4% Two-winged birds , 12.1% bugs and 11% beetles, the rest consisted of cicadas , leaf fleas , springtails , spiders and snails. In spring, the animals occasionally consume nectar and pollen .

Reproduction

Chiffchaffes are sexually mature at the end of their first year of life. The animals live predominantly in a monogamous seasonal marriage. Bigyny , i.e. the mating of a male with two females, is not uncommon. Apparently, a new mating usually takes place when both partners return to the vicinity of the previous year's breeding site. Males arrive in the territories a few days to weeks before the females, the courtship begins with the return of the females. Accordingly, males in Central Europe sing from mid or late March to mid or late July.

The nest is not infrequently built on, but mostly low, above the ground. It is usually found at heights between 10 and 40 cm and varies depending on the offer, for example in blackberries , tall grass, nettles, young spruces, young deciduous trees and the like. The nesting site is chosen by the female. The more or less round and usually somewhat untidy, closed nest has a lateral, oval entrance and is 7–13 cm wide and 8–15 cm high. The outside consists of dry stalks, grass leaves and moss sprouts. The inner lining is made with a similar, but finer material, in addition, small springs are almost always used. Only the female builds; It normally takes 4 to 6 days for a nest, exceptionally up to 12 days, and during this time it flies 1200 to 1500 times with material to the nest location.

Eggs ( Museum Wiesbaden Collection )

In Switzerland, eggs are laid from April 8th at the earliest, usually at the end of April and beginning of May; in Germany between April 16 and 20 at the earliest and in north-eastern Poland from the beginning of May. Second broods are frequent, the latest hatching date in Switzerland was August 14th, in Germany the latest egg laying was recorded at the beginning of August. In first broods, the clutch consists of four to seven, usually four to six eggs; in second broods usually from 3 to 5 eggs. The eggs are speckled finely or medium-sized, dark brown to black on a white background. Eggs from Belgium measure an average of 15.1 × 11.9 mm, series from other areas of Western and Central Europe gave very similar values.

The breeding season is 13–15, rarely 16 days. The nestling period lasts 14–15 days, after 17–19 days the young birds can fly short distances. Parents will lead them for another 10–20 days after they leave the country. The losses of clutches and nestlings are considerable; in five studies in Germany and Switzerland, overall hatching rates between 58.7 and 84.9% were found based on the number of eggs, and 71.4 to 95.5% of the hatched nestlings flew out. Depending on the area, a total of between 2.34 and 3.96 young flew out per brood.

hikes

The chiffchaff is a short to long-distance migrant, depending on its geographical distribution . The withdrawal from the breeding areas takes place in Central Europe from mid-August and lasts until mid or late October with a peak of the main path and migration from late September to early October. The last stragglers are observed in Central Europe in November and December. The Chiffchaff of Eastern and Central Siberia overwinter mainly in India, Western Siberian birds in Iran and on the Arabian Peninsula . European birds overwinter mainly in the Persian Gulf , in the Mediterranean area , in the oases of the Sahara , in the dry savannah south of the Sahara and in the East African highlands. However, the species also winters regularly in western and south-western Europe and individual winter records are available from almost all of Central Europe and in the north to southern Sweden.

The homecoming begins at the end of February. In northern Germany, Chiffchaffes continue to move through until the beginning of May, while on Öland they start moving home in early April and last until mid-June. In Central Europe, the breeding grounds are mostly occupied from the end of March to the beginning of April. The northernmost breeding areas, for example on the southern Jamal Peninsula , are only reached from late May to early June.

Natural enemies

Due to their almost permanent presence in the vegetation cover in Central Europe, adult chiffins have hardly any natural enemies. According to the pouches of Uttendörfer , the sparrowhawk ( Accipiter nisus ) is the only bird of prey that prey on chiffchaff to a significant extent; of 193 records of the capture, 187 were sparrowhawks. Even in the food spectrum of the sparrow, the chiffchaff played only a very subordinate role with 0.44% of all prey. Exceptionally (once or twice each) the species has been detected as prey in peregrine falcon , common buzzard and long-eared owl , pygmy owl and barn owl among owls .

Mortality and age

Young bird that has just fledged

Little information is available on the average age and mortality. A small color-ringed population in Saxony-Anhalt consisted of 70.4% birds in their second year of life, 18.5% of birds in their third and 11.1% of birds in their fourth; so the oldest individuals were not yet four years old. The relatively low recovery rates of captives in Malta also indicate a high mortality rate, where a mortality of 70% per year has been calculated. The oldest chiffchaff caught in Malta was at least 6 years and 6 months old, in Thuringia an animal in the breeding area was at least 6 years and 10 months old and the oldest known chiffchaff was ringed in Great Britain or Ireland and died at 7 years and 8 months found.

Existence and endangerment

The chiffchaff is one of the most common breeding birds in Europe. There is no reliable information on the world population ; the IUCN gives 60 to 120 million individuals as a rough estimate for the European population alone. In Europe, the population was stable or increased slightly in almost all countries between 1970 and 2000; slight decreases after 1990 were reported for Ireland, Belgium, France, Sweden and Finland. According to the IUCN, the species is not endangered worldwide. In Germany, the chiffchaff is regarded as the ninth most common breeding bird species with 2.6 to 3.6 million breeding pairs annually in the years 2005–2009.

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Chiffchaff  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Chiffchaff  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ UN Glutz v. Blotzheim and KM Bauer: Handbook of the birds of Central Europe . Vol. 12, Part II., AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1991: p. 1241. ISBN 3-89104-460-7
  2. ↑ Detlef Singer: What is flying there? S. 88, Franck-Kosoms-Verlags-GmbH & Co KG, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-440-15089-4
  3. ^ Hans-Heiner Bergmann, Hans-Wolfgang Helb: Voices of the birds of Europe. BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, 1982, ISBN 3-405-12277-5 , p. 293
  4. ↑ UN Glutz v. Blotzheim and KM Bauer: Handbook of the birds of Central Europe . Vol. 12, Part II., AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1991: pp. 1278-1279. ISBN 3-89104-460-7
  5. ↑ UN Glutz v. Blotzheim and KM Bauer: Handbook of the birds of Central Europe . Vol. 12, Part II., AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1991: p. 1251. ISBN 3-89104-460-7
  6. ↑ UN Glutz v. Blotzheim and KM Bauer: Handbook of the birds of Central Europe . Vol. 12, Part II., AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1991: p. 1250. ISBN 3-89104-460-7
  7. ↑ UN Glutz v. Blotzheim and KM Bauer: Handbook of the birds of Central Europe . Vol. 12, Part II., AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1991: pp. 1260-1261. ISBN 3-89104-460-7
  8. ↑ Helbig, AJ, J. Martens, I. Seibold, F. Henning, B. Schottler and M. Wink: Phylogeny and species limits in the Palearctic Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita complex: mitochondrial genetic differentiation and bioacoustic evidence. Ibis 138 (4), 1996: pp. 650-666.
  9. ↑ a b The Chiffchaff on Avibase
  10. ↑ UN Glutz v. Blotzheim and KM Bauer: Handbook of the birds of Central Europe . Vol. 12, Part II., AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1991: pp. 1233-1237. ISBN 3-89104-460-7
  11. ↑ L. Svensson, PJ Grant, K. Mullarney, D. Zetterström: The new cosmos bird guide . Kosmos, Stuttgart; 1999: pp. 306-307.
  12. ↑ UN Glutz v. Blotzheim and KM Bauer: Handbook of the birds of Central Europe . Vol. 12, Part II., AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1991: pp. 1279 and 1281. ISBN 3-89104-460-7
  13. ↑ z. B. The Chiffchaff in The Internet Bird Collection (online)
  14. ↑ UN Glutz v. Blotzheim and KM Bauer: Handbook of the birds of Central Europe . Vol. 12, Part II., AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1991: pp. 1275-1277. ISBN 3-89104-460-7
  15. ↑ UN Glutz v. Blotzheim and KM Bauer: Handbook of the birds of Central Europe . Vol. 12, Part II., AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1991: pp. 1264-1265. ISBN 3-89104-460-7
  16. ↑ UN Glutz v. Blotzheim and KM Bauer: Handbook of the birds of Central Europe. Vol. 12, Part II., AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1991: p. 1267. ISBN 3-89104-460-7
  17. ↑ UN Glutz v. Blotzheim and KM Bauer: Handbook of the birds of Central Europe. Vol. 12, Part II., AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1991: pp. 1256-1257. ISBN 3-89104-460-7
  18. ↑ O. Uttendörfer : The diet of the German birds of prey and owls. Reprint of the 1st edition from 1939, Aula-Verlag, Wiesbaden: pp. 326 and 39. ISBN 3-89104-600-6
  19. ↑ UN Glutz v. Blotzheim, KM Bauer: Handbook of the birds of Central Europe . Vol. 12, Part II., AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1991: pp. 1267-1268 and the literature cited there. ISBN 3-89104-460-7
  20. ↑ Staav, R. and Fransson, T. (2008): EURING list of longevity records for European birds. online (accessed September 20, 2009)
  21. ↑ Detailed species account from Birds in Europe: population estimates, trends and conservation status (BirdLife International 2004) (PDF, English)
  22. ↑ Sudfeldt, C., R. Dröschmeister, W. Frederking, K. Gedeon, B. Gerlach, C. Green Berg, J. Carthusian, T. Langgemach, B. Schuster, S. Trautmann & J. Wahl (2013): Birds in Germany - 2013. DDA, BfN, LAG VSW, Münster 2013: p. 17. Full text, PDF
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on February 26, 2010 in this version .