The Eurasian blackcap, usually known simply as the blackcap, is a common and widespread typical 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.
Image: Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) male
Image: Sylvia atricappila vogelartinfo chris romeiks R7F4015
Male S. a. heineken in the Canary Islands, Spain
Adult female in Sweden showing reddish brown cap
The typical warblers are small birds belonging to the genus Sylvia in the "Old World warbler" family Sylviidae.
Typical warbler