November ornithology - Blackbird

This month in The Monthly Illustration Club the Blackbird is the feature bird of the bundle. Here’s a little info about this beautiful creature…

Blackbird

turdus merula

Family: thrushes

Wingspan: 34 - 38.5cm

residency: all year

Previous months throughout the summer I have featured butterflies, but, seeing as now it’s winter and they are getting much harder to spot I thought we might move on to Ornithology for the colder months. This month it’s all about the blackbird, I love blackbirds, with that lovely song and those striking features. I love to watch them hopping along the garden grass looking for worms whilst I stand bleary eyed waiting for the kettle to boil. This month you might see a few new-comers in your garden. Our lovely resident birds that we’ve fed and admired all spring and summer stay with us throughout the winter, but their more northern cousins also join us for the winter festivities and food. If you spot a blackbird with a dark beak then it is likely you are looking at a visitor as it is said they gain their distinct yellow beaks later than their British born friends

These lovely melodic birds can be seen and heard all over Britain, in parks, gardens and woodlands. The males are very distinctive, being entirely black apart from a bright yellow beak and ring around the eye. The females are more difficult to identify being mainly brown with a streaked chest and throat, Juveniles are also dark brown but are covered in warmer more gingery streaks.

They are often seen scouring lawns for worms, they will tilt their head to one side to listen for them. They will also eat berries and insects, so plant trees that either fruit or attract wildlife if you want to encourage this bird into your garden.

Nesting

Blackbirds will commonly produce 2-3 broods in a season however the weather will effect the timings and success rate. The male will care for the young whilst the female will move on to creating the next nest. They usually lay between 3-5 eggs per brood and nesting in gardens will start up to two weeks earlier than in woodland. Woodland clutches can often be greater in number than in the gardens but town clutches often have a higher rate of fledged chicks than in more rural areas. (Maybe to do with us softies filling their feeders up constantly.) Chicks fledge the nest 13-14 days after hatching and will generally be ready for leaving the territory and becoming fully independent around 3 weeks after they’ve fledged the nest.