Common chiffchaff one of the first avian signs that spring has returned. Its call is a "hweet", less disyllabic than the "hooeet" of the willow warbler or "hu-it" of the western Bonelli's warbler. The song differs from that of the Iberian chiffchaff, which has a shorter . However, mixed singers occur in the hybridisation zone and elsewhere, and can be difficult to allocate to species. When not singing, the common chiffchaff can be difficult to distinguish from other leaf warblers with greenish upperparts and whitish underparts, particularly the willow warbler. However, that species has a longer primary projection, a sleeker, brighter appearance
Common chiffchaff criterion of the IUCN Red List (that is, declining more than 30 percent in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as "least concern". None of the major subspecies is under threat, but "exsul", as noted above, is probably extinct. There is a slow population increase of common chiffchaff in the Czech Republic. The range of at least "P. c. collybita" seems to be expanding, with northward advances in Scotland, Norway and Sweden and a large population increase in Denmark. Common chiffchaff The common chiffchaff ("Phylloscopus collybita"), or simply the chiffchaff, is a common and