First winter Male Blackbird from Scandinavia in Rossendale, Lancashire

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First winter Male Blackbird from Scandinavia in Rossendale, Lancashire
First winter Male Blackbird from Scandinavia in Rossendale, Lancashire

www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/b/blackbird/


The males live up to their name but, confusingly, females are brown often with spots and streaks on their breasts. The bright orange-yellow beak and eye-ring make adult male blackbirds one of the most striking garden birds. One of the commonest UK birds, its mellow song is also a favourite.


Overview


Latin name

Turdus merula

Family

Chats and thrushes (Turdidae)


Where to see them

Found everywhere in gardens and countryside and from coasts to hills, although not on the highest peaks.


When to see them

All year round.

What they eat

Insects, worms and berries.


Population:-

UK Breeding:- 5,100,000 pairs
UK Wintering:- 10-15 million birds


Behaviour


Blackbirds tend to be solitary birds. Small feeding and roosting aggregation sometimes form at good sites, but there is no proper social interaction.
Male blackbirds establish a territory during their first year, which they will hold throughout their lives. The territory is essential for pair formation and nesting, although only a part of the food is obtained from within it.

Territory size varies depending on the habitat, and can be as small as 0.2 ha. Territory boundaries break down when the last broods have fledged and adults moult. During this period, territorial drive is low, and many birds will feed outside their territories at abundant food sources.

Territories are re-established in the late autumn, and from spring until July they are defended against all other blackbirds.


Breeding


The breeding season lasts from early March to late July, and chicks are often found in a nest well into August.
During this period, blackbirds rear 2-3 broods. In a good year, fourth broods may be attempted. Weather determines the timing of the breeding season.

Warm or cold spells in spring can bring the breeding season forward or delay it by several days. Dry weather in June can shorten the season and even cause starvation of late broods. The nesting season starts up to two weeks earlier in gardens than in woodland.

The nest, built by the female, is low down in any suitable cover. Trees, shrubs and climbers are preferred, but nests can be found inside buildings, occasionally even on the ground.

The nest is a substantial cup of grass, straw, small twigs and other plant material. It is plastered inside with mud and lined with fine grass. It can take two weeks to complete, and sometimes the same nest is used for successive broods.

The normal clutch size is 3-5. Larger clutches are laid in woodland than in gardens. The female incubates alone, and the chicks hatch 13-14 days later. Only the female broods the chicks, but both parents feed them. Chicks in gardens are fed on earthworms when they are available; woodland chicks are fed mainly on caterpillars.

The chicks are ready to fledge at 13-14 days, but if the nest is disturbed, they can leave and survive as early as nine days old. This ability to fledge early is an important anti-predator adaptation. The young birds creep and flutter from the nest, and remain in nearby cover for the following few days.

They are flightless at first, but within a week will have learned to fly. By this time, they begin to experiment with foods, learning by trial and error what is edible. As their skills and confidence grow, they begin to explore their parents' territory and range more widely. The young become independent three weeks after leaving the nest, and leave the natal area shortly after. They are not driven away by the male.

Fledged young are often left in the care of the male, while the female prepares for the next nesting attempt. The last brood of the season is usually divided between the parents, with each adult taking sole care of some of the young.

There are considerable losses at the egg and chick stage, with at best 30-40% of nests producing fledged young. Despite smaller clutch sizes, birds in towns fledge more chicks per nest than birds in the countryside.


Funny feathers?


Young blackbirds (sometimes called juveniles) can be confused with thrushes or even robins, due to their speckly brown feathers. They're often a rich, reddish brown colour, especially on their breasts.

You'll often see them following their parents around, pestering for food.

Baby blackbirds usually leave the nest before they can actually fly, and hop and scramble their way around trees and bushes.

They can be vulnerable from predators at this time, but you should resist the temptation to make a 'rescue' - the parent birds can do a much better job that we ever can.


If you look in a book, you might be fooled into thinking that birds change from one plumage into another overnight.

It's not that simple.

Here's a photo of a young male blackbird. He's getting rid of the first set of feathers he grew while in the nest, with the much darker, dull-black ones coming through from underneath. He's at that awkward, 'teenage' in-between stage, but it's a great chance for us to see how birds replace their feathers.

The process when old feathers are replaced by new is called moulting. Adult birds do it too, often growing their new feathers after the breeding season when they've been rushing around for months to feed and care for their young.


Here's a photo of young male blackbird, taken in March. He hatched the previous spring or summer. How can we tell?

Look at the longest wing feathers, known as the primaries. They're a dull brown colour, which contrasts with the rest of his body, which is blackish.

Young female blackbirds keep their brown wing feathers too, but it's not as easy to spot them.

A few months earlier, his beak would have been dark, too, instead of the usual bright yellow. It can be confusing when you see a blackbird that's dark from head to toe - they're males that hatched the previous spring.


Some birds grow funny-coloured feathers where they're not meant to.

Here's a male blackbird that's a great example.

This condition is called partial albinism, and it's usually inherited but can be caused by other factors.

Some birds have just one or two white feathers, while others can be white all over or with big white blotches.

Blackbirds seem to be some of the birds most commonly affected, but that might be because they're common garden birds where it's easy to spot the white feathers.


Some birds have just one or two white feathers, while others can be white all over or covered with big white blotches.

Birds with white patches might be vulnerable to attack from predators, as they stand out from the crowd.

These individuals with strange coloration can also be shunned by their own kind.

They even get picked on by other birds which seem to know they're not the same!

Though it's often male blackbirds that are seen with partial albinism, females are sometimes affected, too.


We get quite a lot of e-mails from people saying: 'I've got a funny-looking bird in my garden. It's shaped like a blackbird, it behaves like a blackbird and it's got a yellow beak, but it's got white bits on it so it can't be one. What is it?'

Often, the answer is 'it's a blackbird' - those white feathers can be very confusing.


Legal status


Blackbirds and their nests are fully protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which makes it an offence to intentionally kill, injure or take any wild bird.

It is an offence to intentionally take, damage or destroy the eggs, young or nest of a blackbird while it is being built or in use. It is therefore essential to ensure nests are not destroyed if hedge trimming or tree felling has to be carried out in the breeding season.


Orphaned birds


Now and again partly developed blackbird chicks are found outside the nest, often because of predators such as cats. If possible, the chick should be returned to the nest. Should this not be possible, the chicks survival is dependent on human care. Intervene only if the chick is not fully feathered. Hand-rearing is time-consuming and difficult, and the chance of success is low: attempt it only as a last resort. In most instances orphaned young should be passed on to an expert rehabilitator.

Young blackbirds leave the nest when they are fully feathered but not yet able to fly. They remain flightless for a couple of days. Since the parents will continue to look after it for a further three weeks, a fledgling is extremely unlikely to be abandoned. If the fledgling is in an unsuitable place such as the middle of a footpath, it makes sense to move it a few feet out of harms way. Fledglings should almost never be rescued, but should be left well alone and in the care of their own parents.


Threats


Blackbirds are relatively short-lived birds. They live on average only 3-4 years, but a few reach quite an advanced age.
The oldest known wild individual was 21 years and 1 month. Mortality is high especially during the breeding season - over half of all deaths occur between March and June.

The population trend for the blackbird shows a sustained period of decline from the 1970s to the mid-1990s, followed by a period of recovery, with a 26 per cent increase recorded by the Breeding Bird Survey between 1995 and 2008.

The recent increase in population has seen the blackbird transferred from the Amber to Green list of Birds of Conservation Concern. Causes for the observed population changes remain unknown, although hedgerow loss and drainage of farmland may have affected blackbirds.

In gardens, blackbird populations have remained stable, and the number of chicks that fledge per nest is higher than in many other habitats. However, food availability is often a problem, and starvation of chicks is a common occurrence, particularly in dry weather.

Gardeners can help blackbirds by avoiding the use of garden chemicals, and by planting shrubs that provide blackbirds with caterpillars, berries, or both.

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Taken on: December 15, 2022
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Camera: NIKON COOLPIX P900, f/6.3, 1/80 sec, 250mm, ISO 800 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: NIKON COOLPIX P900
Aperture: f/6.3
Exposure Time: 0.013 sec (1/80)
Focal Length: 250mm
ISO: 800
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Program AE
Exposure Mode: Auto
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
White Balance: Auto
Gain Control: Low gain up
Color Space: sRGB
Software: COOLPIX P900 V1.5
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