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
Eastern Canary Islands chiffchaff Eastern Canary Islands chiffchaff The eastern Canary Islands chiffchaff or Lanzarote Island chiffchaff ("Phylloscopus canariensis exsul") is an extinct subspecies of the Canary Islands chiffchaff endemic to the island of Lanzarote – and possibly also Fuerteventura – in the Canary Islands, Spain. The eastern Canary Islands chiffchaff was more chestnut-backed and shorter-winged than the western Canary Islands chiffchaff, "Phylloscopus canariensis canariensis". These birds were formerly considered subspecies of the common chiffchaff but separated (Clement & Helbig, 1998; Sangster "et al.", 2001) due to their morphological, bioacoustical, and mtDNA sequence differences (Helbig "et al.", 1996). Apparently this subspecies was already very