Cheers for the link Dave. Interesting that these were similar to Yellow-browed. It suggests quite a bit of variety in the range that people are hearing. I'm still not convinced I've been missing these calls all my birding life and from what I have read here and elsewhere it sounds like a few others are of the same opinion - which is good as it means I'm not going mad!
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I think I know the call you mean. I've always called it the 'hiccup' call, because it just sounds like the bird is having 'wind' trouble. I first noted it in the odd bird a few years back (at least ten, I'd say), but even then I thought it was something that I had not heard previously. Now I hear it everywhere (several today).
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Yes it seems to be late summer and autumn you hear them making these type of calls you describe as sweeoeet. I think they are juvenile birds but correct me if I am wrong . ..
Is it just me, or are there are a lot of Chiffchaffs making a different call to what I consider to be their normal autumnal hoo-weet! I started to notice it a few weeks ago and it has become more and more obvious. Its more of a "sweeooeet". Higher pitched, quite sharp. Have I just been missing this for the past 30 odd years or is it much more prevalent this year? There's a few examples of it on Xeno Canto if anybody isn't familiar with what I'm describing.
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