The Eurasian Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) is one of Sweden's finest songsters, a plain grey warbler with light grey underparts and no bold markings except for its crown. The male carries a glossy black cap, while the female and juveniles show a rust-brown one instead, the single most reliable way to tell the sexes apart. Compact and neat at 13-15 cm long, it tends to stay hidden in dense foliage, more often heard than seen.
Its song is clear, flute-like and richly melodious, built from trills and pure whistled notes in phrases lasting four to six seconds, regarded as one of the most beautiful sounds of the Swedish summer, while the contact call is a hard, smacking "tack". Blackcaps breed throughout Sweden except the bare mountains, favouring deciduous woodland with dense bushes, parks and gardens, and arrive from late April onward. The nest is a small, loosely built cup set low in a bush or thicket, holding 4-5 eggs incubated for 10-15 days by both parents; the young remain in the nest a further 10-14 days, and pairs in southern Sweden may manage a second brood in a good year. Diet shifts through the year: insects, larvae and spiders taken from foliage in summer give way to berries and fruit, elder and garden berries especially, in late summer and autumn, helping birds build reserves before migration. A growing number of Blackcaps now overwinter in Sweden rather than continuing to the Mediterranean and Africa, turning to fat, apple and suet at garden feeders during the colder months. With around 1.4 million pairs in 2018 and an increase of 130-170 percent over three decades, the Blackcap is now one of the country's most numerous warblers.
Read about this species in Swedish →