Common Blackbirds
Common Blackbird (male)
Common Blackbirds are an introduced species in Australia. Their range here is south of a line from Sydney in NSW to Port Lincoln in South Australia and they are found throughout South Eastern Australia, including large parts of Victoria and Tasmania. They are particularly found in parks and gardens where they enjoy scratching around in the leaf litter and mulch for their food. Many gardeners despise the Common Blackbird for their untidy habit of flicking bark, leaves, mulch and sticks on to their nice neat garden paths.
Beautiful Songbird
The Blackbird may be an introduced species, it may have untidy eating habits but this is more than made up for by its beautiful song. There are few birds in Australia that can match the song of a Blackbird singing in the late winter or spring evenings. It fills the air with a rich melodic harmony.
Breeding
We didn’t have any resident Blackbirds in our garden here on the outskirts of Murray Bridge South Australia until a few years ago. The occasional visitor, yes, but not resident. Now they have moved in and have started breeding. Several times they have used an unusual nesting spot. They fly into a shed in my wife’s nursery through a small gap above the door. They then proceed to make a bowl shaped nest in one of the many empty plant pots we store in the shed. How lovely and cosy – out of the cold, the wind and the rain.
Common Blackbird (female)
Photos
Despite them now being resident I find that “our” blackbirds are quite timid and are rather camera shy. It was with great delight that today I have been able to take some close up shots of both the male and the female (she is a dull brown colour) fossicking for beetles and worms just outside our sunroom window. This makes a perfect bird hide for photography.
UPDATE:
- This article has created quite a deal of interest. Read the comments section below for the experiences of other people with Blackbirds.
- Related articles: Do Blackbirds Swoop? An article about aggressive bird behaviour with many interesting comments and observations from readers of this blog.
- For more articles about Blackbirds nesting read
- “Anyone for a Swim? Forget it Baby Blackbird”
- “Hear the Blackbird singing in the morning”
My apologies for now answering some recent comments.
I have been very busy in recent months finishing my Masters Degree. Nearly there.
Sherree – is the Blackbird still tapping at the window? If so – try draping some shadecloth over the area – it must be able to see its own reflection and thinks it is another bird coming into its territory.
Sherree – if you are reading this you didn’t get my reply because your email address was invalid and it bounced.
Readers: if you require comments on or answers to questions you must give valid email addresses an subscribe to comments (see at bottom of the page).
We have some nesting blackbirds under the eves of our outside deck. They have had one clutch of three which have flown the nest. To our surprise, another clutch appeared.
However, yesterday was a cold and windy day and we found one of the clutch on the ground next to the nest. My partner picked it up and held it in her hands crying for the poor thing. But, after a couple of hours of warmth and crying, the baby perked up.
We really expected it to die, but we put it in a warn box so it was comfortable.
Now we don’t know what to do! Do we feed it? Do we try and put it back in the nest? Will it survive either way? If we put it back in the nest will it disturb the other young ones or the parents? If we feed it, what do we give it?
Please help as a matter of urgency. Thank you.
Mr Randall, I hope Trevor gets back to your question very soon. When I had a young chick fall out of it’s nest ( being my hanging basket
) I put him back in after I chased the little devil around the carpark that was! I was worried about abandonment for I did pick up the chick a few times before the capture and thought it would smell foreign towards the hen from my contact. Trevor gave great advice and the Hen kept up her chick rearing.
hi there, i’m the partner of Tony Randall with the young black bird chick. I got hold of fauna rescue who also said put him back in the nest. When I did I found there was another 3 chicks in there, and little room. My little one was alot smaller, very weak and only had feathers on his wings. He’s been back in the nest 16 hours, but compared to the others he was very underdeveloped. I’ve since seen the others beaks in the air, but no sign of my little one. I hope he’s not hidden under the others, as he was so weak, I doubt he could fight for food. To be honest, I’m afraid he’s already passed away stuck under them in the nest.
Tennille, thanks for your response. I have a bit of an update. Because we didn’t know what to do, we tried hand-feeding the chick (dog food and water) which it took a little of. It is very young and had a few tufty feathers and didn’t look like it would make it. After digging around the internet yesterday and finding someone to call, we got some advice about putting the chick back in the nest and that the human scent wouldn’t be a problem. We waited until the mother went for food and climbed up to the next and put the chick back. We could see the problem straight away – there were three larger chicks in the nest and obviously the smaller chick got muscled out. However, we still put the chick back and kept a close watch for the chick being pushed out again. So far so good – the chick is still in the next but we are not sure whether it is getting its share of the food. I think our conclusion is to let the mother do the work and let mother nature decide. I will update if I have any further news over the coming week.
Hi Tenelle and other bidie people, i have an update on my little bald chick. He’s been back in the nest for nearly 3 days now, and we’ve seen him with his head in the air for food with the other 3 babies. He’s still smaller but has feathers and seems to be fine with his siblings. I’m so happy. He still faces the test of learning to fly, which hopefully we’ll see soon. Hopefully i’ll get a photo to post on this site. Thanks for your advice
HOORAY!!!that’s gorgeous!!!!! He will be pinching the worms from your garden in no time
Last night I let my cat outside and she straight away found a black bird chick that had fallen out of the nest. I picked him up and kept him inside wrapped up in a towel for the night, i can’t see his nest it’s probably up under the roof of my verandah. I live on a farm so I’ve had baby animals before and it’s not such a big deal to raise him, but what am i going to feed him?
Hi Sarah, I fed my little one mushed up dog food. But check out fauna rescue South Australia web page. They have advice on feeding etc. U can ring them too if in Australia. Good luck
ps: ours all left the nest yesterday and our little one was fine
One of the 2 chicks which hatched in our backyard a month ago has only one wing. So it hops around our yard while its sibling has taken off to learn to fly and forage. So I guess we have ourselves a permanent resident, so I’ve made water available and access to our compost bin. The bin is a big drawcard for the rest of the family, giving our wingless baby some regular contact with its family.
i hate them, have you any idea’s on how to get rid of them , i have so many in my garden & i’m noticing the finches & wren’s don’t visit as much as they used to …regards Dianne Deaves
Hi Dianne,
Sorry about the delay in replying. Most people love the call of the Blackbird but I will acknowledge that they can also be a pest, driving out our native species, taking their food, using their nesting sites and scattering mulch on garden beds when gardeners are trying to conserve water.
The only effective method I know is to be very vigilant and remove any nests you see being built – before they lay eggs or hatch them. This will have limited success as they can just move next door and nest. To be really successful, you would have to have everyone in a suburb/city doing the same thing, no easy task as many people love these “pests.”
I guess I am saying that we are stuck with them – like all the other introduced pests like rabbits, foxes, pigs, camels, hares (they ring bark our young trees), mice, rats (not the native rats and mice) cane toads…. where does the list end? Then just think of all the introduced plants which have become pests… mmm… don’t get me started down that track.
Hi Trevor,
I love our blackbirds, I haven’t seen any in our area, before which is near Wollongong, then about a year ago there was a single male – a fair while later a female appeared. They disappeared for a few months and I thought something may have happened to them. But surprise – surprise they arrived back last week with three others. I’m guessing these are their grown up chicks. We still have native birds in our garden which is quite overgrown and has lots of trees and shrubs so the birds love it.
Thanks for sharing, Melissa.
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Do blackbirds use human hair to line their nests? I have never seen a nest up close and was wondering.
Blackbird nests are usually made of bark, grass, rootlets and sometimes wool, feathers and other soft materials handy. I would imagine human hair would make a fine, soft nest lining. You can see photos of blackbird nests here:
http://www.trevorsbirding.com/common-blackbird-nesting/
http://www.trevorsbirding.com/common-blackbirds-nesting/
I can tell you that we have the Common Blackbirds in Goondiwindi. I first saw the one in our garden about 18 moths ago. We could not identify it with the Australian bird books so had to rely on the Net. We have two males in our garden this year. Happily singing and scratching our mulch all over the place. Not the easiest to photograph but I’ll keep trying.
I live on an acre on the edge of town. Our landscaping is very natural, variety of natives, mulch beds and some areas of lawn.
Over the last few years I noticed a change in bird species. A lot of black birds were present but small native wrens and finchs were absent. This year I have shot almost 100 black birds, there are still a few around, but now the other birds have returned. I’m sure if you take notice you will realise these intruders are flourishing at the expense of our native birds.
We have had a mother blackbird sitting on a nest in our garage for weeks. How long do they sit on the eggs for? Wondering if there is actually life in her eggs.
For 4 years we have been feeding the same male & female Magpies, they bring their babies when they leave the nest for the minced steak we feed them from our hands or the kitchen window (they are not reliant on us for food) we have been away for 4 weeks & they will fly in as we drive in the gate! However a couple of black birds arrived last year, the male Magpie eventually killed the female black bird, he is very aggresive but the female & babies aren’t too fussed. Today we spotted a “couple” of B.Birds in the Leylandi hedge. My question is , would they still be nesting and if so how long for? Thank you for any comments….. Celeste.
Hi Celeste, sorry about the delay in answering. I am currently travelling in Morocco and have limited internet access.
Many of our smaller birds will nest several times during spring and summer. The season can last as long as January or even February.
A pair of blackbirds raised two chicks in our backyard. For the first time this evening the chicks flew out of the nest because they saw one family member stand near them. I could see they were not good at flying. The smaller chick disappeared and the larger chick went higher up to the fence top. Then darkness came. Would Trevor advise me if chicks that young will survive being away from their parents and nest?
Quite likely – once they leave the nest they can be remarkably resilient.
I have just rescued 2 australasian grebe chicks (with Wires) & not too many people seem to know the best thing to do with them, so I am on a fact finding mission, gathering all the advice I can. I came upon your site by accident, so I thought..why not try!! Cheers Jan
Please advise me by emal, thanks.