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.
Flowers include bluebells, ramsons and wood melick, and twenty-five species of bird have been recorded, including three species of woodpecker, chiffchaff and tawny owl.
Buzzards fly over the heath preying on the many songbirds that sing in the hedgerows and over the heath (including chiffchaffs) and leaving their distinctive messy grey pellets.
Although many of our small migrants only have time to rear a single brood of young, chiffchaffs make two nesting attempts, perhaps reflecting their relatively early arrival each spring.
The bird life of the common includes varieties such as chiffchaff, willow warbler, blackcap, common whitethroat, lesser whitethroat, reed warbler and occasionally sedge and grasshopper warblers.