Eurasian Blackcap - Systematics

Systematics

Five subspecies are accepted:

• Sylvia atricapilla atricapilla. Breeds Europe (except Mediterranean area), northwestern Asia; winters northwestern Europe south to tropical western Africa.
• Sylvia atricapilla gularis (syn. S. a. atlantis). Breeds and winters Azores and Cape Verde.
• Sylvia atricapilla heineken (syn. S. a. obscura). Breeds and winters Madeira, Canary Islands, southwestern Iberia, and (?) Morocco, Algeria.
• Sylvia atricapilla pauluccii. Breeds and winters eastern Iberia, Italy, western Mediterranean islands, and (?) Tunisia.
• Sylvia atricapilla dammholzi. Breeds southwestern Asia; winters tropical eastern Africa.

The variation is minimal and largely clinal, making subspecific boundaries hard to define. S. a. heineken and S. a. gularis are prone to melanism on the Atlantic Islands, but only exceptionally on the European mainland; melanistic birds have the whole head and upper breast black in males, and females and the rest of the body in males darker grey-brown. The exact distribution of S. a. heineken is unclear; as well as the Canary Islands (from where it was described) and Madeira, birds from the Atlantic coasts of Iberia and northwest Africa may also be referrable to it. The melanistic birds, morph obscura, were at first considered a distinct subspecies.