Blackcap
Sylvia atricapilla
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Cordats)
- ClassAves (Aus)
- OrderPasseriformes
- FamilySylviidae (Sylviid Warblers and Allies)
- GenusSylvia
- SpeciesSylvia atricapilla (Blackcap)
The Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) is a bird usually known simply as the blackcap. It is a common and widespread warbler. It has mainly olive-grey upperparts and pale grey underparts, and differences across the five subspecies are small. Both sexes have a neat coloured cap to the head, black in the male and reddish-brown in the female. The male's typical song is a rich musical warbling, often ending in a loud high-pitched crescendo, but a simpler song is given in some isolated areas, such as valleys in the Alps. The blackcap's closest relative is the garden warbler, which looks quite different but has a similar song. Wikipedia →
Closest Relatives at Meru National Park
Whitethroat
Sylvia communis
Superb Starling
Lamprotornis superbus
White-headed Buffalo-Weaver
Dinemellia dinemelli
White-browed Sparrow-Weaver
Plocepasser mahali
Fork-tailed Drongo
Dicrurus adsimilis
Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver
Bubalornis niger
Northern White-crowned Shrike
Eurocephalus ruppelli
Chestnut Weaver
Ploceus rubiginosus
Common Bulbul
Pycnonotus barbatus
Long-tailed Fiscal
Lanius cabanisi
Black-headed Oriole
Oriolus larvatus
Parrot-billed Sparrow
Passer gongonensis
📅 Monthly Probability
Fewer than 5 records of Blackcap at Meru National Park — not enough to chart months honestly.
☀️ When They're Spotted
Most active during daytime hours (6am–6pm) · across all parks (global)
Global Distribution
Where this species is recorded worldwide. Restricted to human observations from 2019 onwards — the same kind of record and the same period the probabilities on this page are built from, so collar-tracking studies, camera-trap arrays and museum specimens are excluded. Around Santa Rosa that removes 5,924 GPS fixes from a handful of tagged jaguars.
where this species is recorded (GBIF density — it tracks where observers go, not how likely a sighting is) · parks where it occurs — tap a pin for the sighting probability there