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The Willow Warbler's song is extremely distinctive. A gentle crescendo is followed by cascading phrases, dying away. The song is commonly found to be beautiful to hear plaintive and disyllabic, lasting for around 3 seconds. The Willow Warbler's song also distinguishes it from the confusingly similar Chiffchaff, which has very similar plumage. The underside of the Willow Warbler is a yellowish white. It has a brown bill and orangey brown legs as opposed to the Chiffchaff's dark legs. In flight the Willow Warbler can be seen darting after flying insects, and it may also briefly be seen to hover. The male courts by chasing the female, while quivering his wings. He then extends this into a display of fluttering in which the wings are hardly beaten. The Willow Warbler is also a rare example of a bird which moults twice in a year once when wintering and once when breeding.
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