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#177691 - 06/23/08 02:01 PM Blackbird fly !
BranShea Online content
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 06/23/06
Posts: 3762
Loc: Netherlands, the Hague
Last word about birds.

Summer now and ever since springfling the blackbird couple has chartered me for a ' feed the family ' program. They beg loudly for bread and peanut butter, a shovel of worm containing rubbish, an apple or strawberry.
Mostly 4 times a day they come and urge me on for scraps.They enter the kitchen and have quickly learned not to leave in flight, but walk out safe and quietly. Only once I had to pluck the both of them from the upper window-glass.
The young ones are now well able to fly and eat by themselves but they still chirp for service like babies. High time to give them a little backpack and send them on a cheap interterritorial flight. ( I'll miss them but....)

I took countless pictures. The parents have lost all shyness. The young have been told to hide. So there's just one to show, half hidden on the fence.

The family:

The dad

The dude

The dame

The Blackbird, Common Blackbird or Eurasian Blackbird (Turdus merula) is a species of true thrush which breeds in Europe, Asia, and North Africa,

The young are fed by the parents for up to three weeks after leaving the nest, and will follow the adults begging for food. If the female starts another nest, the male alone will feed the fledged young. Second broods are common, with the female reusing the same nest if the brood was successful, and three broods may be raised in the south of the Blackbird's range.







Edited by BranShea (06/23/08 02:09 PM)
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#177694 - 06/23/08 02:31 PM Re: Blackbird fly ! [Re: BranShea]
zmjezhd Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 08/13/05
Posts: 2473
Loc: R'lyeh
Nice photos. What we call blackbirds on the Left Coast are really starlings and red-winged blackbirds. I was surprised at the blackbirds (Amsel) when I lived in Germany. They're bigger and rougher looking. Latin turdus is cognate with English thrush and German Drossel. There's also the Jackdaw which in Czech is kavka whence the author's name Kafka.

[Edited to clear up my muddled meaning.]


Edited by zmjezhd (06/24/08 08:37 AM)
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#177707 - 06/23/08 07:46 PM Re: Blackbird fly ! [Re: BranShea]
The Pook Offline
old hand

Registered: 02/20/08
Posts: 1067
Loc: Tasmania
 Originally Posted By: BranShea
Last word about birds.

...somehow I doubt it...

 Originally Posted By: Branshea
The Blackbird, Common Blackbird or Eurasian Blackbird (Turdus merula) is a species of true thrush which breeds in Europe, Asia, and North Africa,

It's also in Tasmania, where it is an exotic pest. It was introduced to Australia in 1863. They are especially annoying to vintners, who have developed measures such as timer activated cannons to scare them away from the grapes. We have them in our garden. They eat our raspberries.

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#177716 - 06/23/08 11:00 PM Re: Blackbird fly ! [Re: zmjezhd]
twosleepy Offline
old hand

Registered: 02/28/08
Posts: 796
Loc: western NY
In these parts, the Red-winged Blackbird is well-loved, for its beautiful plumage and cheerful calls. It is not considered a Starling (family sturnidae) which is considered a pest and will flock in the hundreds. The Red-winged (family icteridae) is not nearly as common. In fact, I've never taken a photo of one because they tend to frequent wide-open fields and do not usually eat at feeders. But now I have a project for this summer. I will get a pic! :0)

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#177717 - 06/23/08 11:15 PM Re: Blackbird fly ! [Re: twosleepy]
tsuwm Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 04/03/00
Posts: 9577
Loc: this too shall pass
I once (and only once) espied a migrating flock of yellow-headed blackbirds, whilst walking along a marsh in a suburban nature center -- quite amazing!


Edited by tsuwm (06/24/08 07:53 AM)
Edit Reason: hiking, not awakening
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#177724 - 06/24/08 07:02 AM Re: Blackbird fly ! [Re: twosleepy]
Faldage Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 12/01/00
Posts: 12530
 Originally Posted By: twosleepy
In these parts, the Red-winged Blackbird is well-loved, for its beautiful plumage and cheerful calls.


And as a harbinger of Spring.

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#177728 - 06/24/08 08:39 AM Re: Blackbird fly ! [Re: twosleepy]
zmjezhd Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 08/13/05
Posts: 2473
Loc: R'lyeh
Sorry about that, I completely muddled up my meaning and posted with editing what I had written. I've corrected it. What I meant to write was that true blackbirds like the red-winged blackbird and starlings are lumped together in the folk category blackbird. (Even though starlings aren't really black, more brown mixed in.)

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#177732 - 06/24/08 10:50 AM Re: Blackbird fly ! [Re: twosleepy]
The Pook Offline
old hand

Registered: 02/20/08
Posts: 1067
Loc: Tasmania
Here we call Starlings rats on wings. They are vermin. Western Australia is trying desperately to keep them out. The desert between the West and the Eastern States is a natural barrier to them, but they move along the seaboard and have to be trapped and shot to keep them out. Here in the East they are endemic and cause untold damage to native birds by outcompeting them.

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#177734 - 06/24/08 11:36 AM Re: Blackbird fly ! [Re: The Pook]
Buffalo Shrdlu Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 06/24/02
Posts: 6690
Loc: Vermont
 Originally Posted By: The Pook
Here we call Starlings rats on wings.


grackles be like that. take over a feeder they do.

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#177735 - 06/24/08 12:29 PM Re: Blackbird fly ! [Re: The Pook]
BranShea Online content
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 06/23/06
Posts: 3762
Loc: Netherlands, the Hague
This is de doofpot.


Edited by BranShea (06/24/08 01:36 PM)
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