Blackbird: Interesting Facts About The Garden Bird

Last updated on October 23rd, 2023 at 08:47 pm

The blackbird belongs to the thrush family, is one of the best known park and garden birds and is the most common bird species in Europe. Males and females differ significantly, unlike other thrush species. How? We reveal that here. We have also summarized interesting facts for you about the breeding season, favorite food, habitat and the melodic song of the blackbird.

Appearance of male and female blackbirds.

Males and females are clearly different from other thrush species: blackbird males are black and have an orange-yellow beak, blackbird females are inconspicuously brown in color from the beak to the tail feather.

What can you feed blackbirds?

Blackbirds prefer animal food, such as snails, worms, small insects or larvae, but also eat fallen fruit, berries, fruits or seeds. So you’ll give blackbirds the most pleasure with a natural garden with fruit trees, rather than extra food.

How do blackbirds get their food?

Blackbirds usually hunt in fields, meadows or riverbanks. Especially in the fall, blackbirds draw attention to themselves by rustling as they search the foliage for insects and other small animals with their powerful bills. Their favorite food, however, is earthworms, which they pick out of the ground on short-grassed areas. The biggest problem for blackbirds in gardens is the lack of earthworms after prolonged droughts, when the birds cannot find prey in parched lawns.

Where and how do blackbirds live?

Blackbirds, also known as blackbirds, live in forests, parks or gardens. Their nests are sometimes found in unusual places, such as in gutters, between firewood, or in old freestanding mailboxes, but also in trees, hedges, or shrubs. The birds often use artificial material such as gardener’s twine or plastic marking tape.

Blackbirds rarely inhabit nest boxes. They occur naturally in Europe, northwest Africa and Asia. In New Zealand and Australia they have been naturalized. In our country it is the most widespread and common thrush species and also bird species. It even colonizes mountains, but only up to the tree line. In the Himalayas lives a species that even makes it to 5,200 meters.

Is the blackbird a migratory bird?

Among blackbirds there are migratory birds as well as sedentary birds. The former spend the period from late summer at the earliest to April at the latest in warmer areas. Birds that live in the city or exceptionally still breed in August tend to stay here. However, the cold often costs these so-called standbirds their lives.

Interesting facts about the reproduction of blackbirds

When is the breeding season of blackbirds?
The breeding season of the birds is between February and July. During this time, blackbirds may have three broods, sometimes as many as five, with three to six blue-green eggs each. The female blackbird lays them about 24 hours apart. The chicks see the light of day after two weeks.

Where do blackbirds breed?

Blackbirds are quite flexible when it comes to choosing a nest site. They breed in nests reinforced with clay or moist soil, which they like to build in trees, bushes, climbing plants, hedges or building niches and cushion with feathers, mosses and blades of grass. However, they rarely move into birdhouses.

When do blackbirds leave the nest?

Blackbird chicks, still unable to fly, leave the comfortable nest after only two weeks. Nevertheless, they are still fed by the parents for about three weeks, in the last week mainly by the father.

How old do blackbirds live?

Blackbirds can theoretically live to be about 20 years old. But the average age of the birds is about five years, because they fall to the food of cats or magpies, for example. In addition, blackbirds are not infrequently hit by cars during territorial fights with rivals, when they chase or fly close to the ground.

The song of blackbirds

Males, to impress females, sing a fine rolling “srrri”, to warn rivals a bright “pli-pli-pli” or a “tix tix tix”. To make the song particularly loud and widespread, the male always sings from elevated vantage points, such as a tree top or roof.

Females also communicate in soft, distinct flute tones and melodic chirps. It just sounds a bit more pressed and choppy than the male’s. Blackbird songs are among the most beautiful songs in the avian kingdom because of their melodic fluting vocalizations and wide variance.

When do blackbirds sing?

The yodeling song of blackbirds can be heard early in the year and before sunrise. During the winter months, restrained and not fully sung stanzas can often be heard.