Chiffchaff to Norway and another closer to home

Recent recoveries included details of two Chiffchaffs that were ringed on Billinge Hill last autumn. Both were ringed as first-year birds and both were controlled (caught by other ringers) this spring, but in very different places. One was caught at Lista Bird Observatory in southern Norway while the other was caught just north of Liverpool.

JBX573         Chiffchaff
Ringed          29/08/2015     Billinge Hill, Merseyside.
Controlled     08/05/2016     Lista Fyr, Farsund, Vest-Agder, Norway.   773 km NE,  253 days.


It should be remembered that the line on the recovery maps simply joins the ringing and finding places and does not represent the route taken by the bird.

A check of the BTO Online Ringing Report (link here) for 2015 revealed there had only been a total of 7 BTO ringed Chiffchaffs found in Norway (includes all records received up to the end of April this year) although a total 26 Norwegian ringed birds have been found here. This shows that recoveries in Norway are particularly uncommon and this bird is potentially only the 8th British ringed Chiffchaff to be found there.

JBX773        Chiffchaff      

Ringed         17/09/2016     Billinge Hill, Merseyside.

Controlled    14/05/2016     Fulwood Marsh, Merseyside. 19 km W, 240 days.




The recovery of JBX773 fits in with the more usual pattern of recoveries for birds returning to the general area they came from. In fact this bird may have returned to the site or close to the site where it was originally bred. Many warblers disperse in random directions before migrating south in the autumn and this bird could have moved east to Billinge, where it was ringed, as part of its post juvenile dispersal last autumn.

256 first-year Chiffchaffs were ringed at Billinge last autumn. Peak migration was in September when 122 were ringed, including the bird in this photograph.