Common Blackbird

The common blackbird is one of the most familiar garden birds across Europe. The male is easy to spot: his feathers are a glossy, inky black, and he has a cheerful orange-yellow bill and a slim yellow ring around each eye. The female looks quite different, dressed in soft, warm brown, which helps her stay hidden while she sits on her nest.

Blackbirds are wonderful singers. From early spring, the male perches on a rooftop, fence, or high branch and pours out a rich, flute-like warble. It is one of the best-loved sounds of a spring morning. Clever birds, they can even weave sounds they have heard nearby into their song, adding their own little twists.

These birds are omnivores, which means they enjoy many kinds of food. You might see one hopping across a lawn, tilting its head, and then tugging a wriggly earthworm from the soil. Blackbirds also snap up insects and love to eat berries and fruit, especially in autumn when hedges are full of them.

Blackbirds build tidy, cup-shaped nests using grass, leaves, and mud, often tucked into a bush or hedge. A pair may raise two or three families of chicks in a single year. On average a wild blackbird lives only a couple of years, but a lucky few have reached more than twenty.

There are a great many blackbirds in the world, and the species is listed as Least Concern, which means it is not in danger. Even so, blackbirds do best where there are hedges to nest in and damp, insect-rich ground to feed on. Leaving a few berry bushes and a patch of unmown grass is a lovely way to make a garden welcoming for them.