Common chiffchaff obvious wing bars; they include the willow, Bonelli's, wood and plain leaf warblers. The common chiffchaff has three still commonly accepted subspecies, together with some from the Iberian Peninsula, the Canary Islands, and the Caucasus which are now more often treated as full species. The common chiffchaff's English name is onomatopoeic, referring to the repetitive "chiff-chaff" song of the European subspecies. There are similar names in some other European languages, such as the Dutch "Tjiftjaf", the German "Zilpzalp" and Welsh "siff-saff". The binomial name is of Greek origin; "Phylloscopus" comes from "phyllon"/φυλλον, "leaf", and "skopeo"/σκοπεω, "to look at" or "to
Common chiffchaff collisions with windows, buildings and cars. Only the first of these has the potential to seriously affect populations, but given the huge geographical spread of "P. c. abietinus" and "P. c. tristis", and woodland conservation policies in the range of "P. c. collybita", the chiffchaff's future seems assured. The common chiffchaff has an enormous range, with an estimated global extent of 10 million square kilometres (3.8 million square miles) and a population of 60–120 million individuals in Europe alone. Although global population trends have not been quantified, the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline