The Garden Blackcap Phenomenon

The Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla is always a welcome visitor to the garden, and this photograph shows the male, which was digiscoped on 21/03/08. The male and the female differ from one another by the colour of the cap. Black in the male and rufous-brown in the female.

This species is normally migratory, visiting the UK between April and September, and wintering in Spain, Portugal and North-Western Africa. However, there are an increasing number now over-wintering in the UK, which have arrived here from Northern and Central Europe. These birds steal a march on the Iberian and African migrants by returning to their summer breeding grounds two weeks earlier, and hence getting the pick of the best breeding sites.

The Blackcap is from the warbler family and its diet is pre-dominantly insects. It is able to survive the winters here due to the increasing mild weather and its ability to change its diet to berries and other natural woodland food, and then when this runs out, moving onto food available in garden feeders. This will explain why they tend to move into gardens from late December through to March.

I have recorded this species in my garden on the following dates:
20/01/01 – female
27/01/02 – male
11/01/03 – male
07/01/04 – male
21/02/04 – 2*males
27/11/04 – male
12/01/08 – female
18/03/08 – male. Stayed until 24/03/08.