|
The Eurasian blackcap (''Sylvia atricapilla'') 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 between 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. The blackcap breeds in much of Europe, western Asia and northwestern Africa, and its preferred habitat is mature deciduous woodland. The male holds a territory when breeding, which is defended against garden warblers as well as other blackcaps. The nest is a neat cup, built low in brambles or scrub, and the clutch is typically 4–6 mainly buff eggs, which hatch in about 11 days. The chicks fledge in 11–12 days, but are cared for by both adults for some time after leaving the nest. The blackcap is a partial migrant; birds from the colder areas of its range winter in scrub or trees in northwestern Europe, around the Mediterranean and in tropical Africa. Some German birds have adapted to spending the winter in gardens in Great Britain and Ireland. Insects are the main food in the breeding season, but, for the rest of the year, blackcaps survive primarily on small fruit. Garden birds also eat bread, fat and peanuts in winter. Despite extensive hunting in Mediterranean countries and the natural hazards of predation and disease, the blackcap has been extending its range for several decades, and is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as Least Concern. Its rich and varied song has led to it being described as the "mock nightingale" and it has featured in literature, films and music. In Messiaen's opera ''Saint François d'Assise'', the saint is represented by themes based on the blackcap's song. == Taxonomy == The genus ''Sylvia'', the typical warblers, forms part of a large family of Old World warblers, the Sylviidae. The blackcap and its nearest relative, the garden warbler, are an ancient species pair which diverged very early from the rest of the genus at between 12 and 16 million years ago. In the course of time, these two species have become sufficiently distinctive that they have been placed in separate subgenera, with the blackcap in subgenus ''Sylvia'' and the garden warbler in ''Epilais''.〔Shirihai ''et al'' (2001) pp. 25–27.〕 These sister species have a breeding range which extends farther northeast than all other ''Sylvia'' species except the lesser whitethroat and common whitethroat. The nearest relatives of the garden warbler outside the sister group are believed to be the African hill babbler and Dohrn's thrush-babbler, both of which should probably be placed in ''Sylvia'' rather than their current genera, ''Pseudoalcippe'' and ''Horizorhinus'' respectively. The blackcap was first described by Linnaeus in his ''Systema Naturae'' of 1758 as ''Motacilla atricapilla''.〔Linnaeus (1758) p. 187.〕 The current genus name is from Modern Latin ''silvia'', a woodland sprite, related to ''silva'', a wood.〔Jobling (2010) p. 376.〕 The species name, like the English name, refers to the male's black cap. ''Atricapilla'' is from the Latin ''ater'', black, and ''capillus'', hair (of the head).〔Jobling (2010) p. 59.〕 Fossils and subfossils of the blackcap have been found in a number of European countries; the oldest, dated to 1.2–1.0 million years ago, are from the Early Pleistocene of Bulgaria. Fossils from France show that the ''Sylvia'' genus dates back at least 20 million years.〔Mason (1995) p. 11.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eurasian blackcap」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|