5.
The Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)
There are few meetings when Members have not been
able to see and hear a blackcap. It is better looked
for early when there are no leaves on the trees. The
male bird has a black crown, whereas the female has
a brown crown. Its song really is very beautiful,
consisting of a rich warble - that is erratic -
scratchy, and quite clear, uttered from the branch of
a tree. The song is rather like that of the Garden
Warbler, but not so sustained and much more erratic
and not so fluid. The Blackcap is a common bird of
woodlands, particularly at the edge of deciduous woods.
It arrives about the middle of April, a bit earlier
than the Garden Warbler. Members have seen and heard
this bird at all the places mentioned.
The Garden Warbler (Sylvia borin).
A hair coloured brown bird with rather buff under
parts would be a suitable description for the Garden
warbler. It really has no distinctive markings. Its
song, however, is a beautiful sustained and much
fruitier and fluid warble, than the Blackcap. This
bird always seems to be busy amongst the leaves of the
trees such as oaks, every now and again bursting into
its fine warble. The Garden Warbler does not feature
so much in our records for 1974, although it must have
been present in most of the habitats.
Common Whitethroat (Sylvia communis)
Until the late 1960's this was a common bird of
hedgerows, commons, heathland with small trees. In
recent times its numbers have declined and the reason
is very difficult to explain. The bird arrives about
20th April. It is a bird that has a pure white throat
which is puffed out when it utters its scratchy, but
rather hurried warble. The Common Whitethroat can be
best recognised by this song uttered from a hedgerow,
shrub, or sometimes during a flight upwards from a bush.