Well=groomed blackbird

This cock blackbird is one of a pair nesting in the holly hedge at the bottom of the garden. While the hen bird incubates the eggs he doesn't have much to do, until there are nestlings to feed, so he spends his days sunbathing, preening and singing, with just an occasional bout of violence when he needs to see-off a rival blackbird.

Sunbathing involves sitting on this flat concrete block, fluffing up his feathers and rocking from side to side to soak up the warmth of the sun, ridding his feathers of parasites. Sometimes he goes into a trance-like state, with his beak open and eyes half-closed, panting in the heat.

Then a long session of feather preening and scratching with his claws.

Sneaky but risky.....

This blackbird snuck in under our radar and built her nest in an ivy-covered fence within a few feet of our windows. It'll be convenient for watching her progress but tense too - a grey squirrel uses the top of the fence as a highway every day and there are magpies nesting just two gardens away...

A sound of spring......

Click here for the sound track to this photograph

Hot Bird

Every afternoon this week this blackbird has been sunning itself in the hottest spot in the garden, in our potato patch. It sits in a trance, wings spread out, panting with its beak open, eyes glazed over .... and potentially easy prey for cats. Given the risk, there must be some biological imperative for this behaviour. The favourite theory seems to be that the heat forces parasites in the feathers on its back to move around, making it easier for the bird to reach them with its beak.

What happened Next......?

I've been watching this female blackbird in the garden for several days, while she has been collecting nest material and building her nest in the ivy at the bottom of the garden. Now she's finished and yesterday evening I watched her preening and foraging for food in the brief period before egg laying and incubation begins. While she was perched on the fence a wasp became caught in a spider's web within easy reach and the blackbird's attention immediately locked on to the frantically buzzing insect. I could almost hear her thinking 'should I eat it?'.


I've no idea what would happen if a blackbird tried to swallow as wasp. On a couple of occasions I've seen frogs swallow wasps that have landed on the pond surface for a drink. On both of those occasions the frog looked a bit pensive as the wasp went down its digestive tract but neither frog made any attempt to spit it out, or appeared to suffer any visible ill effects. They just settled back with their eyes level with the water surface and waited for something else edible to cross their field of vision.


The blackbird hesitated for a few seconds - maybe that warning colouration really does work - and during that time the wasp managed to struggle free and got away. So I still don't know what would happen next if a blackbird swallows a wasp.


For another potential life-and-death encounter with an unresolved outcome click here

Overheating Blackbird

There's frantic nest building activity all around our back garden. So far I've found two blackbird nests, as well as nests of a robin, wren, hedge sparrow, collared dove and wood pigeon in various stages of construction. This female blackbird spent the whole morning shuttling backwards and forwards with nest material and then, at around 2pm. when the afternoon was at its hottest ....

..... give seemed to give up out of sheer exhaustion. She spent the next half hour apparently in a trance, with her feathers fluffed up, beak open and panting heavily. During that time a sparrowhawk flew low overhead without spotting her - one lucky blackbird!

Vulnerable

We came across this sunbathing blackbird yesterday at Smardale Gill NNR in Cumbria, where it was in a trance-like state with wings and tail fanned out. This is the moment when it realised we were there and struggled to its feet, brain still befuddled by the heat, wings drooping, feathers still fluffed out. If I'd wanted to I could have reached out and grabbed it. There must be a serious purpose for birds sunbathing like this, as it leaves them very vulnerable to predators. Using the sun's heat and UV to reduce feather parasite load is supposed to be the reason why they do it.

This young rabbit was vulnerable too, apparently believing that it was covered in a furry invisibility cloak as it peered at us through the grasses without making any effort to run.