warblers

The Blackcap is many people's favourite songbird. John Clare (a poet born in Helpston near Peterborough) wrote a Blackcap poem and called it the March Nightingale. It is a bird that arrives and sings earlier than the Nightingale and is every bit as melodious. The Blackcap is a very cocky operatic tenor. A small, stocky woodland bird slightly smaller than a sparrow, although one of the larger warblers.

The male is plain grey brown above, paler below, with a rounded black cap (hence the name), and a squared off tail. He has a pale grey collar when looked at from the rear. The female is similar but has a reddish brown cap instead of black as she doesn't want to look like a puritan. Young Blackcaps are a duller version of mum.

Blackcaps are more often heard than seen as they tend to lurk in deep cover and only occasionally come to garden feeders. They like woodlands, copses, thickets and other bushy places including parks. Anywhere there are lots of places to hide. The Blackcap's song has rich, clear notes and is loud. This is someone who has clearly been trained to sing opera. The song can sound a bit like a speeded up Blackbird's, a lovely flutey warble with the odd buzzing note thrown in. Male Blackcaps can develop a signature tune and include phrases that mimic other birds, just to show them how it should be done. Their alarm call sounds like two pebbles being clicked together which is confusingly similar to the call of a Stonechat.

They eat insects such as caterpillars and beetles, moving on to fruit and berries (like holly and mistletoe) in the winter. They are opportunistic eaters when food is scarce, which is why they sometimes turn up on your garden feeder.

In April to May, the male builds several rough-and-ready nests low down in dense vegetation (such as brambles) from which the female chooses one to fashion into a delicate cup-shaped home. The female lays 4-6 eggs, which both birds help incubate. These hatch after 11 days. The proud parents then feed the young for 11 days until they fly away. They sometimes have 2 broods.

The Blackcap is a summer visitor. They get as far north as southern Scotland and a few hardy souls get all the way to Inverness. There are about 1 million birds, and their numbers have increased in recent years. A few Blackcaps over-winter in the south of Britain, now we are getting warmer winters. The rest head off to the Mediterranean for a bit of Flamenco singing and dancing in Spain. The oldest recorded Blackcap lived to be 10 years old, which shows that singing is good for you.

Their Latin name is 'sylvia atricapilla' where 'silvia' was the name of a woodland sprite and 'atricapilla' is from the Latin 'ater' for black and 'capillus', for hair. A black-headed woodland fairy. Fossils of the Blackcap have been found in several European countries; the oldest, dated to 1.2 million years ago!

The Chiffchaff is one of the first birds to come back from France and Africa in the spring (though a few stay in southern Britain all winter). They are in a hurry to set up camp and get parade drill underway. They are called 'zilpzalp' in German, 'siff-saff' in Welsh, and 'tjiftjaf' in Dutch, so everyone pretty much calls them by the noise they make.

The Chiffchaff is about the size of a Blue Tit, though not such a snappy dresser, and is a bit podgy, pot-bellied looking. Their upper parts are a dull olive-brown with the rump being slightly paler. The underparts are a dull yellowish-brown (see what I mean - dull as a squaddie). The short, rounded wings are marked with faint yellowish lines. There is a dark line through the eye and a faint pale eye stripe above. Unless you get them in good light, they just look brown (in their fatigues). They are a very restless bird, flicking their wings and twitching their tails especially when feeding - like a soldier constantly saluting. The Chiffchaffs' flight looks jerky. To add to the confusion, they look very similar to a Willow Warbler with their song being the best way to tell them apart.

The Chiffchaff sings like a dyslexic parade ground sergeant major with his "Left, Right!" ("Chiff, Chaff") call, only he gets his feet all mixed up and often goes "Left, right, left, right, right, left, right, left, left, left..." while belting out his marching song.

Chiffchaffs like woods, copses and other shrubby places where there is thick undergrowth and trees, though not pine woods. They feed mainly on insects like midges, aphids and caterpillars. They will flutter out to catch an insect on the wing and sometimes hover to grab one from under a leaf.

The female builds a domed nest with a side entrance (and boot room) low down in the bushes, especially brambles. It is made from stems and leaves, and is lined with feathers. 4-7 eggs are laid in early May, which hatch after 15 days. The youngsters are fed by mum as dad is too busy on parade ground duty. The young cadets leave the nest after 15 days. In places where it is warm, they may have a second brood.

There are about 700,000 Chiffchaffs in Britain. The migrants arrive in late March and leave at the end of September. Most head south to France to join up with their French legionnaire buddies and chat about past campaigns. Some hardy birds stay in the south of England, particularly now winters are getting milder with climate warming. They are mainly concentrated in the south and midlands, getting more scarce in the north and rarer still in Scotland as who wants to sing with bagpipes. Although their marching song is not the greatest of melodies when compared to a Skylark's, it is a joy to hear, as it signals that the year has turned, winter is gone, and spring has arrived.

The Chiffchaffs Latin name is 'phylloscopus collybita' where 'phyllocopus' comes from Greek words meaning 'leaf to look at' (well they are a dull greenish brown) and 'collybita' is a corruption of 'kollubistes' meaning money changer as their song has been likened to the jingling of coins.