The Blackcap warbler is mostly a summer visitor to Scotland although in many years a few will also be found in winter. Ringing recoveries have shown that winter birds are in fact migrants from eastern Europe which will head back there shortly before our summer visitors arrive from wintering in Africa.
The Blackcap is distinguished by having one of the most melodious songs of any of our birds - a song which can be quite difficult to separate from that of the Garden Warbler. It is an otherwise fairly unobtrusive bird generally skulking in deep cover. Only the male bird has the distinctive black cap, the female has a reddish brown one.