Interactive Birds

Birds

Blackbird

Turdus merula

Glossy black with a golden beak if he's a male, warm brown if she's a female, and a beautiful song.

Size
About 25cm long
Look for it
All year round
Where
Gardens, parks, hedges and woods

My spotter's list

Runs, stops dead and tilts its head to look for worms. Move your pointer and see.

When to look

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Blackbird

Good to know

Six things about the blackbird

Colour

Not always black

Only the males are black, with a yellow-orange beak and eye ring. Females and young birds are brown.

Worms

Head on one side

Blackbirds run, stop and tilt their head over the lawn, watching and listening for worms before they pounce.

Song

The dusk chorus

Their rich, fluty song carries from rooftops and aerials at dawn and dusk from late winter into summer.

Alarm

Chink, chink, chink

At dusk blackbirds often make a loud "chink chink" alarm call as they settle down to roost.

Food

Fruit lovers

In autumn and winter blackbirds love berries and fallen apples. Leave some windfalls on the lawn for them.

Visitors

Winter visitors

Many of the blackbirds in British gardens in winter have flown here from Scandinavia and northern Europe.

The real thing

Photos of the blackbird

Blackbird, photo 1
Photo: Andreas Trepte, CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons
Blackbird, photo 2
Photo: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Blackbird, photo 3
Photo: Musicaline, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Out and about

How to spot one

Look on lawns in the early morning, running a few steps and then stopping to listen. Males sing from rooftops and aerials at dusk in spring.

Lend a hand

How to help

Put out apple halves, raisins soaked in water and mealworms on the ground. Berry bushes such as hawthorn and rowan feed them in autumn.

Keep going

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