Blackcap song (1 Viewer)

[Britseye]

Well this was timely: https://soundapproach.co.uk/which-c...Ua8zu-TOZ0wxxq6hVoPrixAvmcVQLZE7HBGl26jyxLEBc

About the leiern song, Blackcaps in Italy, especially in the south, do this all the time, with the occasional bird sounding very similar to Western Orphean (which contrary to most field guide maps, is nearly extinct in Italy as a breeder)

As you say, Cajanuma: how timely was this piece indeed! It almost feels like I've delegated this work out to the Cosmos and let somebody else do the work for me! That much Blackcap song begins with mimicked phrases finished off with a coda we can all recognise seems very well-established. We've just got to get used to all the variants at the beginning. A list I saw in BB stood at around a dozen species in the early 60s but then was added to several times over the following years. My Song Thrush variation didn't seem to be included, but then I stopped looking after a while?

As to the leiern motifs...well, I couldn't condense what BWP has to say without losing some of the meaning in translation, so I've just copied it and included it below. I assume Mark C must have read it at some point? But if he hasn't, or he's forgotten about it, I think its fair to say that his attempts to make any kind of sense about the variation in Blackcap song in southern Europe must belong in the category of wishful thinking?

 

[cafe birder]

Blackcaps can be excellent mimics at times. I remember one imitating a willow warbler song for several minutes in Cornwall many years back. I think this was in the autumn.

 

[rosbifs]

Great article by sound approach

I listened to all the songs - the seventh recording is the closest that I consider the 'tell' for this area - round about 9th and 11th seconds (and repeated).