By Nigel Higgins.

Sexing the Blackcap is extremely easy. The cock bird has a black cap, and the hen a brown cap.

I keep my pairs in my bird room through the winter months. I do, however, know keepers who will leave them in their outdoor flights all year round with no problems at all. This is entirely a personal decision.

The flight that I use for breeding the Blackcap is 5ft x 5ft x 6ft high. It has a concrete base to keep vermin out.

Inside the flight, I have constructed a square wooden box, and filled it with soil. Within the wooden box, I have planted conifer branches very thickly for the birds to nest in.

At the beginning of April, I place the cock bird into this flight. By this time of the year, he should be very vocal. The hen bird is placed in an adjacent flight, and after a few days, if compatibility is obvious, I will transfer her to the cock bird's flight.

You must treat the Blackcap like you would the Redstart, because they will fight to the death if they are not ready.

If there are signs of incompatibility, then take the hen back out, and return her a few days later.

My pair hit it off straight away. I had witnessed the cock bird chase the hen a few times, but this was part of the courtship display. A few weeks later while i was in the next flight, the cock bird flew as close to me as he could get, and puffed his chest out and started singing in a threatening manner. I realised that they must have a nest to protect. At my first opportunity, I made a quick inspection of the flight. They had built a nest, but it was not the best of nests, as the Blackcap builds the most flimsy of nests, but a nest never the less. All the hen bird had used as nesting material was coconut fibre.

Within a few days, the hen bird had started to lay. The Blackcap normally lays five eggs, but unfortunately my pair only laid four.

The Blackcap will incubate for roughly two weeks. Both birds will take it in turns to sit the eggs. I have actually witnessed both the cock and hen sitting the eggs together.

After hatching, I feed mini mealworms dusted with a multvitamin and calcium powder, along with the regular softbill mixture. Again, both parents help in feeding the chicks.

The Blackcap chicks will leave the nest at about 12 days old, and hide in the undergrowth. They will call out to the parents when they require feeding. Before the chicks are fully independant, the adult pair will have built up, and begun to lay again. The Blackcap will go down twice in a season.

To summarise, the Blackcap is an easy bird to sex, and once they are paired up they make good parents. The cock will sing all day long. I woke up eary one morning about 1am and I could hear my cock Blackcap singing. They are a joy to have and make a excellent addition to anyone's collection of softbills, therefore I would recommend the Blackcap to anyone wanting to start up with small softbills.

Good luck