The Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), usually known simply as the blackcap, is a common and widespread typical songbird. In Italy this species is everywhere widespread, and is numerous in winter months especially in the islands. It can be found in Salerno’s province in National Park of Cilento e Vallo di Diano but also in Punta Campanella Marine Reserve.
The blackcap is a leap-frog migrant; birds from the north of the breeding range travel furthest south, whereas Mediterranean breeders move much shorter distances.
It has mainly olive-grey upperparts and pale grey underparts, and differences between the five subspecies are small. Both sexes have a neat colored cap to the head, black in the male and reddish-brown in the female. Its flying is a kind of short and wavy. It rarely descends to the ground, but when has to, it moves with small jumps.
In culture, Aristotle, in his History of Animals, considered that the garden warbler eventually metamorphosed into a blackcap. Its song is also the topic of Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli's "La Capinera". The blackcap is called “the vocalist of Canary islands” by its inhabitants.
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AA.VV. - Rassegna completa degli uccelli d'Europa, Rizzoli, Milano 1972