Black Cap

Is it unusual to see a Black Cap in a garden in Fife in January? The bird in question has been spending about half an hour a day in the garden for the last five days feeding and perching in the nearby hedge between feeding sessions.

  • Have a town centre garden in Wallingford, Oxfordshire with only ever sparrows, blackbirds and great & blue tits, but this morning I saw a male black cap! Dove grey with a velvety black cap. My 1st ever uncommon bird.

    I have a wonderful birdtable which excludes pigeons, so I can keep it loaded with all sorts of food without the pigeons stripping it bare as soon as I'm not watching! See the photo above: it's from www.birdtables.org.uk here in Wallingford.

  • We also have Black Caps in Caversham Heights - both male and female. They seem to love sunflower hearts and suet pellets as well as the dried currants I leave out. Heard they love peanut butter so will give that a go. Seem to get a lot of spotted woodpeckers too

  • A bit of a late comer to the discussion, but we have noted a pair of Blackcaps right through winter and into the summer for the past 7/8 years, this year two femal and one male. Resident, guaranteed appearance every day feeding from the bird table fat balls, seed etc and they absolutely love an apple, held in a apple holder about 6 ft off the ground (so that that the Black birds don't get it first, (they have their own on the ground) I make a small hole to start with and they will hollow it out leaving the skin. They reward us with their beautiful song, being a member of the Warbler family. Rural garden adjacent to farmland and meadow, Salisbury Wiltshire.

  • It's usually reckoned that the Blackcaps that visit our garden in winter are east-west migrants from central Europe and that they return there to breed. If you've got ones that are staying all year round that is more unusual but very nice.

    I've had both male and female Blackcaps in winters past but this year only this lovely female and she didn't arrive until about a month ago. I'm expecting her to leave any day now either to migrate or to disperse into the countryside to breed if she's a stayer.

  • She's just beautiful Tony,   what a gorgeous photo.  Hope she's a stayer :)

  • Beautiful little bird, I first became aware of the blackcap about 4 years ago. Most winters I see one (always a female), but this winter the female has been a very frequent visitor - several times a day. I have a couple of feeders in a forsythia bush which the little birds like as the starlings can only access them individually unlike the main feeding station. The blackcap particularly likes the half coconut filled with suet -yesterday she spent quite some time just sitting next to it as though making a statement that it was her food. The robin is quite happy with the food on an old tree stump beneath the forsythia. The more I watch the garden the more I am aware of how many visitors I have. Thank you for the BGW.
  • Today, has been my second ever sighting of a Black Cap in our garden in Stoke on Trent in the West Midlands.  Very thrilled.  It was enjoying a good peck of the suet fat squares.

    Very much hope to see it return.

    Did see one in the garden last Spring as well.

    Thanks for the BGW - always enjoy taking part and seeing the results,