Blackcaps are back to stay
OH, those warblers, they make the spring and summer so musical and they make me come over all poetical.
Willow warblers in the woods, reed warblers by the sides of lakes and ponds and the wonderfully melodious blackcap, which can appear in your garden.
The blackcap belongs to the Sylvia genus of warblers, which means “Old World Warblers”, most of these are medium-sized; the size of sparrows.
Apart from the garden warbler and the whitethroats, they have cousins across the world like the Arabian warbler, the spectacled warbler, the chestnut vented warbler and the banded parisoma.
You can hear blackcaps singing in woodlands at this time, they really let rip with a lot of chattering followed by a flutey warble to finish it all off.
They are fairly easy to spot, being dark grey with a black cap but with no bib like the similar willow tit and marsh tit. The gingery-brown cap of the female makes her even easier to see. Actually, it’s not often that female birds out-glam their male counterparts, but I think this is one of them.
Blackcaps were once just visitors to the UK in summer, coming in from Germany and north east Europe in September, but then leaving again in March. They were coming over here for the berries on our bushes in the colder months.
Over the past 60-odd years they have now started to nest and breed here and the Lancashire Bird Atlas tells me that they have overtaken garden warblers as our most common Old World Warbler in the North West.
That is lovely, because we love a success story here at the Wildlife Trust and it is a sign that the work ourselves and our brilliant volunteers are doing on our nature reserves is working, blackcaps are all over the place. In fact, one of the best places to see these birds is in your own gardens if you live close to woodland, which is great for our garden bird watchers. They will not only breed in large wooded areas but also smaller ones, including parks. Blackcaps are not choosy when it comes to moving into urban areas. For more information about wildlife go to www. lancswt.org.uk and the My Wild City section.
The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside is dedicated to the protection and promotion of the wildlife in Lancashire, seven boroughs of Greater Manchester and four of Merseyside, all lying north of the River Mersey. To become a member go to the website at www. lancswt.org.uk or call 01772 324129. For more information about Cheshire Wildlife Trust call 01948 820728 or go to cheshire wildlife trust. org.uk.