Anyone have a garden blackbird?
Loganberry Hut
Posts: 199
We recently moved in to this house, and quickly realised we have a blackbird family living at the bottom of the garden! (although there seems to be 2 males and 1 female? - is that usual?)
I have started to feed them, and they have so quickly become tame! came downstairs this morning to find the 2 boys stood on the window ledge waiting for their breakfast! Does anyone else have a tame blackbird family?
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For years we had a blackbird with white feathers on one wing, sadly he's gone now, but still left his offspring.
When they come to mate, they will probably fight for Mrs and one boy will get chased off.
yes! one of my boys also has a white stripe on one wing!
One of the boys may well be a male from last year's brood - his dad will chase him off eventually - we have a pair of blackbirds regularly visiting the garden - I think they nest in the hedge in the garden behind us.
When I was at work I fed the birds outside our office window, and we had a regular pair of blackbirds who nested every year in the climbing hydrangea growing up my office wall (as did a pair of robins). I kept a birdbath filled with clean water, and when the blackbirds were nesting they would use the birdbath frequently during the day to 'freshen up' after a long stint on the nest brooding the eggs. It was wonderful to watch.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
yes, I did wonder if one of the boys was from last years brood, he does look younger!
When do they mate/ brood?
Pretty soon I would think - they'll have been looking for nest sites for the past couple of weeks - blackbirds are mainly ground feeders and particular favourite foods are rolled oats and sultanas/raisins.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
yes.. they love the raisins, and also grapes. gave them strawberries yesterday but they weren't too impressed with those! they live in the hedge at the back of my garden, so presuming they will nest there?
We used to have one with a deformed beak in a previous garden. He was a juvenile and we watched his beak gradually change colour to it's grown up orange. We called him 'squinty' and my eldest daughter (who was quite small at the time) loved him and always asked where he was if she didn't see him. Happy days.
What a lovely pic LH
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
The blackbirds in our back garden are more rural I guess and rush off whenever we move, let alone get close. They are lovely to watch though - providing we keep still. The squirrels, however, never stop eating everything in sight and are a different breed altogether!!
Isn't it amazing how the blackbirds will raid our strawberry beds, but will turn up their beaks at strawberries put out for them
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It's obviously not the same as sneaking them, Dove.
We have a pair that visit daily. They both make heavy use of the birdbath, when the obese woodpigeons are not sitting in it. About this time of year we do get 3-4 males in the garden, but its Mrs blackbird who chases off the ones she doesn't like. She looks like she get stressed out when nesting as in summer she always appears with a huge bald patch on top of her head.