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Mountain Chiffchaff | Phylloscopus sindianus
Bergtjiftjaf | Mosquitero montano
The Mountain Chiffchaff is a brownish chiffchaff lacking yellow, from the mountains of the Caucasus, north-eastern Turkey and Central Asia. In the region it is a rare winter visitor in the far north-east, mainly in Kuwait, where it is easily overlooked among the many wintering Common Chiffchaffs.
Voice
The call is a soft, slightly falling, rather piping psew or swee-oo, unlike the rising hoo-eet of Common Chiffchaff and closer to the plaintive eep of tristis. The song closely resembles that of Common Chiffchaff, a series of chiff-chaff notes, but is somewhat faster and thinner; rarely heard in winter.
Recording: David Nayer — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
10.5–12 cm. Shape and behaviour like a Common Chiffchaff, with the same tail-dipping, but the plumage lacks almost all green or yellow: upperparts grey-brown to warm earth-brown, underparts off-white with a warm buff wash on breast, flanks and ear-coverts. The supercilium is long, buff to whitish and often clearly reaches in front of the eye, above a dark eye-stripe. No green edges to wing and tail feathers, at most a hint on the primaries; no yellow under the wing or at the bend of the wing. Bill and legs blackish, the bill slightly finer than in Common Chiffchaff. Birds in the region are presumably of the western form lorenzii.
Confusion species
Common Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita), especially the pale eastern form tristis (Siberian Chiffchaff), is the trickiest: it has green edges to wing and tail, yellow at the bend of the wing and on the underwing and a cooler buff tone; the call is decisive. Plain Leaf Warbler (Phylloscopus neglectus) is smaller, shorter-tailed and drabber, with a hard chrit. Iberian Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus ibericus) is much greener and yellower.
Habitat
In winter bushes and trees in moist, sheltered places: tamarisks and reeds along water, irrigated farms and gardens, orchards and date-palm gardens. Breeds outside the region in scrub and open woodland along mountain streams and on mountain slopes, often above 1500 m.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the habitats of North Africa and the Middle East.
Range and movements
Rare but regular winter visitor to Kuwait, with most records from November to January on farms and in gardens such as Al Abraq and around Jahra. Also a few records in Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Oman; not known elsewhere in the region. Beyond the region the form lorenzii breeds in north-eastern Turkey and the Caucasus and the form sindianus in the Himalayas, the Pamirs and the Tien Shan; it winters in lower valleys in south-western Asia, Pakistan and north-western India.
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In winter, search the vegetated farms of Kuwait among the wintering chiffchaffs for a bird without any green or yellow, and listen for a soft, falling psew. A sound recording is often needed for a safe identification.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened. So rare in the region that no trend is known; wintering birds depend on irrigated gardens and farms in the desert.
Scientific name
Phylloscopus sindianus | Brooks, 1880
Brooks described the species in 1880 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Phylloscopus was introduced in 1826 by Boie. Phylloscopus is Greek, from phullon 'leaf' and skopos 'seeker', from skopeō 'to watch': the bird that searches the foliage. sindianus means 'of Sind', after the region of Sindh in what is now southern Pakistan. The specimen the first description was based on came from Sukkur, Pakistan.