Blackbird

Turdus merula (Linneaus 1758)


Order: passeriformes - family:  turdidae- 


Merle noir (France), Merlo (Italy), Mirlo Común (Spain), Blackbird (Eng), Amsel (Germany).


Lenght : 24-25 cm

Wingspan: 34-38 cm

Weight : 85-115 g

Longevity : 16 years




Fenêtre et Nichoir Fenêtre et Nichoir Fenêtre et Nichoir

















(11 mai 2007)

A male black blackbird with its yellow beak and its yellow ringed eye perches on the willow of the balcony. The beak of youngsters becomes yellow after a year. The female is entirely brown.

Habitue of cultivated plains and urban gardens it feeds mainly on worms, invertebrates, fruits and waste. Common in all Europe and part of Asia. Broods are formed of 3 to 5 gray blue-green eggs, with russet-red brown marks, in a pretty bowl shaped nest. The female broods approximately two weeks and the young leave the nest 12 days after the hatching. There are three or four broods per year. Melodious, flute-like and varied song. It has a great capacity of improvisation. 

In springs evenings, often perched on the TV antennas near our balcony, the singers start melody tournaments but each one near the frontier of its territory. The blackbirds are territorial and do not tolerate others blackbirds on their territory during the reproduction period. One attacks a long melodious sentence and then keeps silent. The neighbour begins at once with its own melody and stops. The first one takes again its song and decorates its sentence with variations which seem to borrow part of the adversary song. The joust can continue a long time, the melodies becoming increasingly complex in particular the final song before the pause, which is decorated with trills.


In the balcony, in spring, it briskly scrapes the ground of the recently planted pots and in winter it tastes with delight the fruits of the Virginia creeper.





Habitat






Distribution in Europe: Green: all the year, Yellow: in summer, Blue: winter. Also present in North Africa, Egypt and Asia, India and China.

















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