Blackcap in song! 18th March 2010

[darrenm]

Been away from home for a week or so sorting out and working on a property to help get it sold and got back yesterday. The first thing i did was stock up the feeding station and feeders which a family member had 'promised' to do while i was away but had 'forgotten' to do, the usual Dunnock and House Sparrows were back within an hour or so and the whole area seems to be coming alive with Blue Tits calling and the Blackbird defending its patch. What threw me for a while this morning was a bird song i couldnt place for a few seconds and it finally dawned on me when i got sight of the culprit it came from a Male Blackcap.

So far i havnt had any sightings of any other Blackcap other than this male and had asumed that they had all now gone back to their spring patches in Europe which our UK wintering Blackcap population tend to do. The male Blackcap is not in full song that you would normally hear later in the year but delivering part of it and bits of sub-song. This is the first time i have heard a Blackcap at this time of the year and find it a bit unusal. I also asume this is one of the wintering Males that has not yet migrated to its spring breeding ground.

Just wondering if anyone else has got Blackcap now singing in their gardens?

[Picidae]

You may be interested in this thread
wintering Blackcaps

and some comments I posted on my local ornithological site last month:


Referring to **********'s report of an 'early' singing Blackcap, these will probably be singing in German! I've had a pair of Blackcaps in the garden since mid January and the male started singing in the first week of February. It's interesting to note that German Blackcaps wintering in Spain are developing genetic distinctions from the German Blackcaps wintering in the UK scienceblogs.com An obvious correlation is that those Blackcaps wintering in the UK (about 30% of the populations of Southern Germany and Austria) have a shorter prenuptial migration than those wintering in the Mediterranean so arrive on their breeding grounds earlier. It would be interesting to know whether 'early' singing amongst German Blackcaps might be related to intraspecific clinal recognition/competetion in the microevlolution of European Blackcaps. Perhaps supporting this hypothesis is a recent report of a wintering flock ca. 500 Blackcaps that were singing in Spain in the second week of February (where there is clinal overlap with Spanish breeders during return migration from Africa) and reports of so many singing in the UK during February this year? Interesting abstract here: SpringerLink - Journal Article and here: SpringerLink - Journal Article

Both the female and male Blackcap I've had wintering this year are still around and the male was singing yesterday.

[aland]

The one thing these lovely little bird's like is half a apple tied up on a branch!

[Geoff F]

I've still got a male in my S. Devon garden (usually get at least one every winter) and I have seen a female on a couple of occasions. He has become relatively tame over the winter.

In previous years they have disappeared around the middle of March but this one is still tucking into the feeders. But the Greenfinches are also still with me, so maybe the colder winter is delaying them for a few days.

[darrenm]

The Male Blackcap was again on form this morning and it now looks a lot less 'shabby' than it did a few weeks back, that's providing its the same bird. The body plumage and cap are very sleek now and the cap is a shiny black like what we normally see in the breeding population.

Had read various recent reports concerning our wintering Blackcap population and their origins and it has been suggested by some that this population split may be occuring through people feeding wild bird populations during the winter for the last 40-50 years in the UK. I understand the Blackcaps from different populations are showing different genetic make-up and are in the process of becoming seperate races. I was wondering if some of this could also be down to and another indicator of climate change?

I have also wondered about the origins of Chiff-Chaff that have over-wintered on a local site in Nottinghamshire up until the last few years.

[Simples]

Surely Blackcaps are now resident throughout most of the UK? They certainly are in my garden, being my most regular visitors. The RSPB website concurs: The RSPB: Blackcap

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by Simples

Surely Blackcaps are now resident throughout most of the UK? They certainly are in my garden, being my most regular visitors. The RSPB website concurs: The RSPB: Blackcap

Actually that link doesn't say that Blackcaps are resident; it says our breeding birds arrive in April + leave early autumn + that some continental birds winter here.

Now it's possible there are some resident birds, but generally (from ringing recoveries) there appear to be different populations- a breeding population which is very widespread + which winters in the Med/North Africa + a central European breeding population which winters here (in much smaller numbers).

Where I live they are everywhere in suitable habitat from April/May, but I only see the occasional bird in winter (but probably overlooking some as the're not singing).

[darrenm]

agree that the ringing evidence suggests we have two seperate populations of Blackcap in the UK a summer breeding population and a winter population which are both migrant and had never heard a Blackcap calling/singing this early before in over 30 years of taking interest in the wildlife around me and the reason i posted hopefully to see if others were experiencing the same thing.

With the time of year i would asume that the bird which was calling again this morning is one of the wintering population form Germany and not a very early arrival of the spring/summer breeding population.

[darrenm]

the Blackcap is still around and was again in song this morning just after first light 29th March

[aeshna5]

Had my first 2 singing Blackcaps yesterday.